The Most Unforgettable Characters
by toledo girl
Summary: Bob spends a marathon weekend with the group of people that inspired his dream in which he owns an inn in Vermont.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Princess has Arrived

The elevator doors opened on the seventh floor to the young petite blonde that stood inside. She rushed out, passing Carol.

"Miss?" Carol called over to her.

"What?" she sharply asked, stopping dead in her tracks before Bob's office. She turned and looked to Carol, her expression telling to hurry up and not waste her time.

"Dr. Hartley is with a patient right now," Carol stated. "You can take a seat there for now if you would like. I can let him know you're here," she offered.

"But it's eleven," she whined. "This is supposed to be my time."

"It was supposed to be my time ten years ago, but it still hasn't come," Carol stated and then laughed at her own joke. After she saw the lady just staring at her, she looked down in her book. "Ms. Stephanie Vanderkellan?" she questioned, making sure that she had the name right.

"Yes," she curtly answered and finally sat down in the chair. She might as well just wait. It wasn't like she was really that excited to be there in the first place.

Just as Carol was about to pick up the phone, the door opened. Bob walked out with Mr. Carlin, who was carrying a deck of cards.

"Good game today," Bob started. "But next time maybe we could actually talk."

"I don't know about that Dr. Hartley," Elliot replied. He was about to head over to the elevator, but stopped and smiled to Stephanie. "You can join in on the game next time," he offered.

Stephanie looked up to him and smiled. "I don't think so," she replied.

"Mr. Carlin? Why um, why don't you just go ahead and try working on that decision making problem that was briefly brought up during the game," Bob suggested.

Elliot turned and looked to him. "I would love to, but I can't decide on which decision to work on first. The new rug or what color of toothbrush to buy," he stated.

Bob stared to him for a minute. "Why don't you make that your first decision?" he implored.

"All right, I'll do it," Elliot stated. He walked over and pressed the button for the elevator. "By this time next week, I will have a new rug and a new toothbrush," he announced.

"Very good Mr. Carlin," Bob said and then turned and looked down to Stephanie. "You can come in now if you would like," he offered.

"Well I wouldn't like to," she murmured as she grabbed her purse and stood up. "But I guess I will."

Bob waited for her to pass him into the office before he closed the door behind him. "Take a seat," he instructed, gesturing to the couch.

Stephanie ignored him and headed straight over to the chair behind his desk. She set her purse down and then propped her feet up on the desk. "My Name is Stephanie Marie Vanderkellan. I am twenty five years old. I come from New Port Rhode Island, where I have won twenty beauty pageants, fifteen talent competitions, and was a runner up for Miss Rhode Island last year. The only reason I didn't win was because they thought that it was unfair that I get blessed with the stunning looks, great personality and wealth. They thought that some poor girl should have a chance. Two weeks ago my parents cut me off, so now I am out here living with my cousin and looking for a job," she quickly explained.

"I see," Bob replied as he went around to the side of the chair closest to the desk and sat on the arm. "How did you feel about being cut off?" he questioned.

Stephanie took her feet off the desk and sat up, leaning forward. Her eyes narrowed on him. "They had no right," she stated. Calming herself down, she sat back in the chair and crossed her legs. "One morning they're calling me their little princess and telling me how pretty I am, and how perfect I am, and then the next day my daddy tells me that I have to get out and start working for my own money."

"Well, Ms. Vanderkellan, you're not the first person to be kicked out of their parent's house. As a matter of fact, a lot of the population enjoys being out on their own and having more freedom," Bob stated.

Stephanie laughed. "That's because most of the population isn't nearly as privileged as I was," she responded.

"Why, why don't you tell me what your normal day was like back at your parent's house," he suggested.

Stephanie sighed. "Well, I woke up at eight and had breakfast with my parents. Then I would go up to my room and get ready for the day, you know get dressed, make up, hair. Then I would go out shopping. Get lunch with one of my friends. If it was a nice day, sometimes we would go out on the yacht, or we would go out to the tennis court or watch a movie. Then there was dinner. After that I would go out with which ever guy I liked at the moment until eleven thirty and then I would get ready and go to bed at midnight."

"Why should you get to do all of that stuff while everyone else has to go to work?" Bob asked, hoping that she might start getting the point.

"Weren't you listening? My parents are loaded and I look better than professional models. We can't chance the wold losing someone like me to a greasy grill at some disgusting restaurant. I mean, really. Look at what could go wrong. I could get grease stains, my hair could not put up with that heat and I run the risk of sweating," she answered.

"We certainly can't have that," Bob said. He then stood up and stepped closer to the desk. "I think you should join one of my groups," he suggested.

"You want me to help the underprivileged psychos?" she inquired.

"No. Not, not really," he answered, watching her, trying to figure out how serious she was about that remark. "I, I just think that maybe you should get used to being with other people," he explained to her.

Stephanie just looked to him with confusion. "Aren't I doing that now by talking to you?" she asked.

"It's a start," Bob assured her. "But I think you need to get used to being in a group of people."

He leaned over and took a notebook out of the top drawer. He stood up and started skimming the pages. "There's two groups that don't already have a lot of people in them," he stated. "There's one for overweight people," he read out loud to himself.

"And I can be the one to inspire them to lose weight!" she exclaimed, sitting up. "Of course, we have to be careful though. I mean, they know that no matter how much weight they lose, they'll never look like me, and that might discourage them."

Bob paused a moment to let her talk, but ignored her comment and went straight to the other group. "And then there's one just for anyone. I have a few groups that are created with random patients that would rather discuss their problems with a group of people. Know that they're not alone," he explained.

"I don't think so," Stephanie laughed.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Please. Random? That means that I can end up in a group with a serial killer and a bug eater. I don't think I wanna take my chances of sitting between those two," she reasoned.

Bob stood there a minute. She had quite the imagination. "This isn't some sort of insane asylum. These are just people that have problems in their lives and want to talk to people about them," he said.

Stephanie over dramatically sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll join a group of wackos."

Bob looked to her with concern. "Are you by any chance here on your own choosing? Or is someone else sending you here?" he questioned.

"My parents felt bad, so they're paying for me to be here," she explained.

"I see," he replied, wondering if this was really going to work. "Most times, this works out better if you go in with an open mind. Most people who choose to be here rather than those who are forced seemed to have a better outcome," he told her.

"Hey, if this is making them spend more money on me after they kicked me out, then I'm all for it," she stated, a slight smirk on her face.

"Fine then," he sighed, still having his doubts. If anything though, she would get a chance to be with other people and have to learn to listen to others. "You can either join next week here on Wednesday at two, or you can come over to my apartment tonight. We're having a small meeting about the marathon this weekend that the group is having. That's where we go away for a couple of days and spend time together," he offered.

Stephanie thought for a second. "I'll come tonight," she decided.

"All right," Bob said and then pulled out a piece of paper and wrote his address on it. "The meeting starts at seven," he informed her as he handed her the slip of paper.

"Okay," Stephanie said and then slid the paper into her purse. Looking back up to him, she rested her elbows on her legs and lay her head on her hands. "Are we done now?" she questioned, sounding bored.

Bob looked down to watch. "In about fifty minutes we are," he answered.

Stephanie just sighed.

ooo

Emily walked out to the living room and set a tray of drinks down for everyone.

"Thank you Mrs. Hartley," Michael said, smiling as he took the glass.

"Your welcome," she replied and then looked over to the blonde next to him. "Something wrong with your drink Ms. Richardson?" she questioned, watching as she took a napkin and thoroughly wiped the edge of the glass.

The woman smiled up to Emily. "Joanna," she corrected and then held up the napkin. "I can't stand any sort of germs," she confessed.

"Oh, I see," Emily stated and then headed back into the kitchen.

There was a knock at the door. Bob, who had just hung up the phone, went and stood by the couch, looking to the group. "All right everyone, I wanna give you all a small warning here. The new person that is about to walk through that door happens to think a lot of herself. I just, I just want you all to be a little easy on her today. She still hasn't seemed to learn yet that the world doesn't revolve around her," he explained and then headed to the door.

"I thought you said seven," Stephanie said as she hurried into the apartment.

"I did," Bob responded as he closed the door. "I just had other things I was busy with at the second and couldn't get to the door," he explained.

Stephanie sighed. "All right. I'm here anyways, so why not get this thing started," she mentioned more to herself.

"Come this way," Bob instructed. He lead her down to the living room. "Everyone, this is Ms. Vanderkellan," he introduced her.

"Stephanie," she corrected. "Ms. Vanderkellan makes me sound older than I am."

"And we certainly can't have that," Bob remarked.

"Of course not," Stephanie agreed. "Although, who would believe it?"

"Anyways," Bob sighed. "This is the group here," he announced, motioning to them.

"I'm Larry," the man in the chair started at the end. he took a moment and played with the tie around his neck before looking back to his brothers and nodding.

The first dark haired man came forward. "I'm Darryl," he softly stated, almost inaudible. He then pointed back to the blonde one. "And that's Darren," he mumbled.

Stephanie didn't even catch their names, but she still smiled and nodded.

"I'm Joanna," the blonde announced. "I can't stand germs and I really like to clean a lot. I thought you should know that," she stated.

"Well I need a maid if you're interested," Stephanie offered.

"No," Bob answered for Joanna.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Fine," she huffed.

"Michael Harris," the next one introduced himself.

"Kirk Devane, and that's the truth," Kirk announced as he introduced himself.

"About time," Elliot remarked, looked over to him from the chair. He then looked over to Stephanie. "I think we met in the office," he stated.

"Yes, we did," Stephanie flatly replied.

Bob looked down to him for a minute and then "All right, now to get down to business," he said.

"Before I leave, does anyone else need anything?" Emily interrupted.

"Water?" Stephanie requested, turning to face the kitchen.

Emily smiled. "Sure," she said. That had been the easiest request so far. She got the glass from the cabinet and turned on the water.

"You're not seriously getting it from the tap are you?" Stephanie questioned.

"Yes I am," Emily laughed.

"Ew," Stephanie replied, scrunching her face in disgust. "Never mind," she curtly stated and then walked around and sat down in an empty seat.

Emily turned the water of and set the empty glass down on the counter. "Okay then," she stated, annoyed with the behavior.

Michael quickly looked over to Stephanie. "I agree. Imported water is the way to go," he announced.

Stephanie smiled over to him. "Finally, one of the crazies have some sense," she stated.

"That's me," Michael agreed, laughing.

"The suck up's at it again," Mr. Carlin announced.

Bob sighed. "Can we please get on with the meeting now?" he requested.

"Bye honey," Emily said as she walked up from behind him and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Bye Emily," he replied.

"Wait!" Michael called out to her. Emily stopped right before the door and looked to him. "Mrs. Hartley? Is it true that you went with another group to their marathon?" he implored.

"Yes," she answered, wondering why this was even coming up now.

"Two as a matter of fact," Mr. Carlin mentioned.

"Well why did you go with them and not with us?" Michael asked.

Emily shrugged. "I was invited to go with them. It didn't work out so well though," she assured him.

"Tell me about it. We spent the entire time discussing your marriage. Most unproductive weekend we've ever had," Mr. Carlin commented.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Kirk mentioned.

Mr. Carlin blankly looked over to him. "You weren't there," he replied.

"I just want to know why she likes them, but not us," Michael whined.

Emily could see where this was going and decided that it was best to just get out before things got worse. "I don't favor any of Bob's groups over the others," she insisted. "But I really have to get going now," she stated before she walked out the door.

"Now that she's gone," Bob started.

"Where are we staying this time?" Larry questioned. "Because we need to know what sort of luggage to bring with us. That phopa of us bringing camping gear to that hotel slash resort could have been avoided," he explained.

"Actually, this time you will need your camping gear. The only place that I was able to get on short notice were the cabins at Camp Crystal Lake," he explained.

"That'll certainly be a challenge for me," Joanna said.

"Well hopefully you'll be able to over come some of your compulsion to clean everything," Bob responded.

"Either that or she'll have a panic attack," Mr. Carlin suggested.

Bob saw the look of terror on Joanna's face. "Don't, don't worry Ms. Richardson. Just remember to keep calm," he instructed.

"Darryl wants to know," Larry started, but was cut off by Bob.

"Why do't you let Darryl tell us?" he suggested.

Darryl sheepishly looked around the room and then muttered something incoherent. Larry watched his brother as he spoke and then turned to Bob. "Did you get that?" he questioned.

"No, not really," Bob admitted.

"Let me try this time," Kirk offered. He sat up and looked over to Darryl, studying him for a moment. "He wants to know if…" he trailed off, trying to think of what he could have said. "If there'll be a place to swim!" he exclaimed jumping up and looking to Bob.

"Correct," Larry responded.

Bob just looked between the two for a moment, trying to figure what just happened. "Yes, yes there will be a lake there if you want to go swimming," he answered.

"Now, we'll meet outside my office on Friday at two. That's when the bus should arrive. Then we will leave the camp on Sunday at four," Bob explained.

Joanna raised her hand. "I would like to take this opportunity to volunteer to take care of the meals," she announced. The thought of anyone else touching her food before she got it bothered her.

"All right," Bob said.

"Is Stephanie coming with us?" Michael questioned.

Bob shrugged. "I don't know. Are you?" he implored, looking over to her.

Stephanie laughed. "I don't think so," she answered.

"Why not?" Joanna asked. "I'm pretty sure if I can handle this, anyone can."

"I don't think I want her to come," Kirk stated, crossing his arms and sitting back into the couch.

"Yes you do. I saw you checking her out when she walked in. You wanna see her in a bathing suit," Mr. Carlin accused him.

"Well, I guess if I would be doing you guys a favor by going," Stephanie started.

"You would," Michael quickly assured her.

"All right, all right. No need to beg here," she gave in to them. "I'll go."

"I think that answers your question," Bob told Michael.

"You can charge the trip to my parents. Actually, charge everyone's share of this trip to them. I have to make up for what I would be spending if I were there," Stephanie said.

"Why thank you Ms. Vanderkellan. The three of us greatly appreciate it," Larry stated.

"Don't mention it," Stephanie replied.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Waiting

The lobby outside of Bob's office was filled with the group and their luggage as they waited for the bus to arrive and take them off to the cabins.

Standing off by himself, Michael took another look over his luggage, mentally going over a list to make sure that he had everything that he needed. He then took a glance at watch. "That bus should be here by now," he mentioned to himself.

Starting to get fidgety, he looked around the room. The Stevens were grouped together working on something, Elliot was trying to start a conversation with Joanna, Kirk was talking to Carol, then off in the corner stood the new girl. She was alone as she checked her make up in her compact mirror.

He gathered just enough courage to go over to her. "Stephanie right?" he asked.

Stephanie looked up over her mirror. "Yes," she responded, not seeming to be all that interested.

Michael smiled to her. "You know, you don't need to be checking your make up, you already look perfect," he insisted. Even though he was trying to compliment her in order to get her attention, he really did find truth in what he said.

Stephanie smiled to him. "Well, I know, but I like to go through the motions anyway," she replied, enjoying the admiration. She closed her compact and stuck it back into her purse. "You think that this stupid bus will get here soon?" she implored.

"All I know is that Dr. Hartley said it should have been here at two. It's five after and we're still here," he stated as he checked his watch. He then looked up to her. "That man needs to get a better sense of time."

"Tell me about it," Stephanie responded, and then let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't even usually agree to get on a bus, let alone wait for one."

Michael was happy, this was a beautiful girl talking to him. The attire she was wearing was stupid to go camping in, with her leather boots, long brown skirt with her pink top and dress jacket, he noted, but there was no way that he was going to point it out to her after she had decided to talk to him. He then looked over to her luggage, noticing that she had two suitcases for the next forty eight hours. "Would you like me to carry your things for you onto the bus?" he offered.

Stephanie let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I was having trouble finding out who was going to get them. For a minute there I almost thought that I would have to do it."

Michael looked to her for a moment. He doubted that she had ever had to do anything for herself. Then, he also figured something else out, he doubted that she could be single. He wanted to ask her, but he couldn't, instead he had to just see whether or not he could figure it out for himself. "Hey, would you mind if I sat next to you on the bus?" he requested.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Stephanie answered, not sounding all that enthused by the idea. She took a second and studied him. "You seem like the most normal person here anyways."

"Thanks," he replied.

Stephanie took a second and looked around the room before she leaned in closer to Michael. "You don't by any chance know if any of these people here are murderers or eat bugs do you?" she whispered.

"Well I can assure you that no one here is a murderer. As for bug eaters, the only one that I can be sure about is Joanna, she can't even stand to have one in the room with her," he answered in the same hushed tone. It was hard for him to say anything against the people here, but to be honest, he wasn't sure about Larry and his brothers. Some of the stories that they had shared with everyone were a bit different.

Stephanie slowly nodded. "Well, she's the one that I'm sharing the room with, so that is important," she explained.

Not too far from them sat Carol behind her desk as Kirk stood leaning closer to her from the other side. "You know," he started, resting his head on his hand. "I only have so much time that I can offer, and I think that it's only fair that I give you the opportunity to reserve some of it," he informed her.

Carol laughed. "No Kirk," she answered.

"What if I told you that I'm not really Kirk Devane, that this is just the temporary identity that the government gave me because they believe that there are spies in this part of the country and that staying with me would be the safest place for you?" he attempted.

Carol leaned closer to him and smiled. "I know why you're here Kirk," she told him.

"Do you really?" he questioned. "I mean does anyone really know why we're here?"

"Because we would be lost if we weren't here," Carol responded, and then laughed at her own joke.

Before Kirk could say anything to Carol, Joanna and Elliot walked up to the desk.

"Carol? Would you be offended if a man went out and bought you a maid outfit?" Joanna blurted out in annoyance.

Carol looked between the two. "That depends, what am I being asked to do in this outfit?" she asked.

Kirk held up his hand. "Question. Do I get to see you in this said outfit?" he implored.

"No!" Joanna answered.

Elliot set his bag down on the desk and pulled out a simple maid outfit. It wasn't too skimpy, but just enough to offend Joanna. It was a low cut, tight fitting outfit with a short skirt. "Doctor Hartley told me that I needed to be more friendly with people, so I thought that I would give it to her as a joke between friends, since she likes to clean so much," he dryly explained.

"That makes sense," Kirk said.

Joanna looked to Carol, waiting for her response to all of this.

"I would just be happy that he thinks you're cute enough to pull it off," she stated.

"I never said that you had to wear it in front of me," Elliot added.

Joanna sighed as she looked over and offered a smile to Elliot. "Thank you," she breathed out, taking the outfit and putting into her own bag.

"It wouldn't hurt though if you did try it on," Kirk said.

Joanna rolled her eyes and left the group.

Over closer to the elevator, stood Larry, Darryl, and Darren. They had their things all in one suitcase.

"Now, you two remember that we are going out into the woods. That means no running off. You hear me?" Larry warned them. "You remember what happened last time don't ya?"

The two brothers nodded in unison.

"Good," Larry said. "The last thing we need is to get lost again," he stated.

The phone rang and Carol went and answered it. "Doctor Hartley's office," she answered. She sat there for a brief moment as she listened. "Okay, thank you. I'll let him know," she replied and then hung up the phone.

"Doctor Hartley? The bus is here," she announced to him.

"Thank you Carol," he responded. He was about to tell everyone else, but he saw them all heading towards the elevator already and decided that it wasn't needed.

Bob was about to head the elevator himself, but he heard someone from behind him call out his name. He turned around and saw Joanna standing there. "Yes?" he replied.

Joanna stood there and looked around real quick. "Do you mind if we talk alone for a few minutes when we get there? I have something personal that I would like to discuss," she requested.

"Sure," Bob answered. "We can probably talk right before dinner," he suggested.

Joanna smiled to him. "Thank you," she responded before heading onto the elevator.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Fears

Bob stepped off the bus, leading the rest of the group out to the grassy area right before a trail that went into the woods. Everyone looked annoyed as they walked outside. The last people to get off were Michael and Stephanie.

"You don't know how glad I am to finally be here! You average people must have hell to pay, riding those things everyday. I feel like I need about three showers to get all the bus smell off," Stephanie whined as she stepped off.

"Trust me, it was just as bad for us a sit was you," Elliot assured her. He had been irritated with her from the time that she had started complaining while stepping onto the bus.

"Well, now that most of us are over the trauma of the bus ride, I think we should start heading towards the cabins," Bob stated. He too had had enough of Stephanie's whining. He had started to wonder why she even agreed to come in the first place. The only reason he didn't say anything though, was because he didn't know her all that well yet. She was new in town, she might have just wanted something to do, a chance to meet people. Maybe.

As everyone else grabbed their things, Stephanie looked all around the area. "You mean after that long ride, that stupid bus didn't even take us to our cabin?" she nearly shrieked. She had never had to walk across the street let alone across a camp ground.

Joanna glanced over to Stephanie and then looked over to Bob. "I don't know what this means about me, but I kind of agree with her on that one. I don't know what was on that seat, but i had to wipe it down three times, and I think I've had enough dirtiness for one day," she stated, starting to get nervous.

"I second that!" Kirk announced.

"No you don't," Elliot dryly remarked, not even bothering to look to him this time.

"All it is a small walk down to the cabins!" Bob explained, getting irritated with everyone. He then looked to Joanna and calmed down. "Now Ms. Richardson, I can walk you down there and you'll be fine. This, this is a chance to overcome your obsession with cleanliness." He looked to Stephanie and slightly glared to her. "And Stephanie, get over it," he stated and then started walking.

"Oh!" Stephanie shrieked, insulted.

Joanna walked beside Bob as Larry, Darryl, and Darren followed.

"You know that your face can freeze like that," Elliot mentioned, noticing the glare that Stephanie was casting towards Bob.

Kirk just laughed. "You got him to tell you to get over it. I've never seen him get worked up like that before," he explained as he walked past her and followed the rest of the group.

Michael sheepishly walked up beside Stephanie. "You know, maybe we should catch up with the group so that we don't get lost," he suggested.

"Grab my things," she demanded and then started walking.

Michael sighed as he went and picked up the suitcases for her.

ooo

"Boys to the left and girls to the right," Bob instructed as they approached the cabins. He then looked to Joanna who was trying to remain calm. "How are you holding up?" he asked.

"I think I'm okay," she breathed out, forcing a small smile. "Just a tad bit jumpy, that's all."

"If you still wanna talk, we can do that right after dinner," he offered.

"Thank you," Joanna replied, nodding.

Bob looked over and saw Larry, Darryl, and Darren heading towards the girl's cabin. "Um, Larry! That's, that's the wrong cabin!" he called out to them.

All three of them stopped and turned back to Bob. "We know!" Larry replied. "We're just dropping off Stephanie's things for her," he explained as his brothers each held up one of her suitcases.

Puzzled, Bob just stopped and watched for a moment as the three turned back and continued to drop the luggage at the door. "I thought that Michael was the one doing all of that for her," he mumbled.

"Is it over yet?" Stephanie whimpered.

Bob and Joanna turned around to see Michael struggling to keep Stephanie in his arms as he carried her towards her cabin. Their eyes followed the sight as they made their way closer and closer to the door.

"Is this good enough?" he implored about three yards from the cabin.

Stephanie uncovered her eyes and looked around the area. "Well, okay," she reluctantly answered.

Michael set her down and started heading towards the men's cabin. "Hey Larry? Did you or your brother's grab my bag for me?" he called out to them as they were right about to enter the cabin.

"Got it!" Larry yelled back to him.

"Thank you!" Michael responded, speeding up to get to them.

Joanna watched the scene before her and sighed. "I thought it was going to be fun having another girl in the group with me," she muttered as she headed down towards the cabin.

ooo

The group was gathered in the rec. room. It was a fairly good sized room. There was a large bay window to the right of the door that was lined with cushions. In front of the window, there was an old, very used looking couch that faced out the window and was next to a fireplace with a coffee table before it. Next to the fireplace was an old beat up living room chair with fabric that matched the couch. Then, off to the side was a dining room table lined with chairs.

Larry and his brothers were all sitting on the couch together, while Michael and Stephanie sat on the cushions in the bay window that faced out to the lake, and Joanna, Elliot, and Kirk all three scattered in chairs.

Bob sat down in the chair next to the fireplace and looked around at the group. "Is there anything in particular that you would like to talk about today?" he questioned, trying to get things started. He knew by now, that once one person said anything, that it was easy to get a conversation started and easy to keep it going.

Kirk, who sat backwards in his chair, with his chin resting on his arms that were folded on the back of the chair, lifted his head and raised his hand. "I got a date with your receptionist Carol," he casually announced.

Elliot looked over to him. "No you don't. Besides, she's married," he argued.

"You hit on a married woman?" Larry questioned, looking to him with surprise. Darryl and Darren each leaned over and gave him a look of disapproval.

"Hey! I was not invited to that wedding! I didn't know," Kirk stated in defense. He then looked over to Elliot. "Besides, at least I'm not afraid to talk to a girl," he stated.

"Am not," Elliot argued and then looked over to Stephanie who was closest to him. "Hi," he greeted.

Stephanie looked to him, telling him that he had to be kidding. She was not about to flirt with him to prove a point.

"Fine," Elliot sighed in defeat.

"See? he's afraid to talk to a girl," Kirk pointed out to everyone.

"Now, Mr. Devane, do you really think that's fair? I mean, you, must be afraid of something. Just, just look at the lies you tell. You're covering up for something," Bob explained.

"What I'm really afraid of is dogs. No, don't listen to that. That's a lie, I don't know why I just said that," Kirk replied.

Michael looked over to him. "Maybe you're afraid of people not liking you for what you really think," he suggested. "I'm afraid of rejection," he announced.

"Maybe," Kirk considered the idea and then folded his arms and rested his chin on his arms.

Stephanie looked to Michael with raised eyebrows. She wasn't looking to him snobbishly, but for the first time, Michael looked and saw a slight, tiny, glimmer of concern in those eyes of her's.

"Have you been rejected before? It's not all that bad," Elliot informed him, trying to ease his fears on it.

Michael broke his eye contact with Stephanie and looked over to Elliot. "I didn't have any friends growing up," he admitted, hoping maybe that would pass for being rejected, just to let him know that he did know what it felt like.

Joanna looked to him with some sort of empathy. "I had one friend growing up," she stated. "But she got really sick with some sort of infection and she didn't make it," she explained, her eyes slowly going down towards the floor.

"That why you're afraid of germs?" Kirk implored.

Joanna looked up to him and shrugged. "I guess. Doesn't explain my fear of dust bunnies though," she responded, trying her hardest to think back to any bad experiences with dust.

"I still say you should come over and clean my apartment," Stephanie mentioned. To be honest, that was the only thing that she could say to keep her from laughing at that moment.

"No Stephanie," Bob said.

"We're afraid of getting separated for too long," Larry informed them, with Darryl and Darren nodding in response.

Darryl then said something that no one else could understand.

"What?" Elliot questioned.

"He said that he sure is glad that the three of us found jobs where we can work with each other," Larry clarified.

Elliot then looked over to Stephanie, giving talking to her another chance. "You haven't spoken yet," he stated. He was actually pretty curious about this girl. She was the only one that he hadn't heard anything about yet.

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know, cheap clothing," she nonchalantly answered.

"Yeah, cheap toupees scare me," Elliot flatly added.

"You ever wonder if there is anyone out there who isn't afraid of anything at all?" Kirk questioned, starting to seem bored with their current topic.

"That's impossible. Everyone has to be afraid of something. It's human nature," Bob explained.

"Maybe they're just good at covering up their fears," Michael mentioned, intrigued with the idea himself. He had always figured that if he could get past the need to be accepted, that he could do just about anything he wanted.

"Or good at overcoming them," Joanna suggested.

Larry, even though he was interested, found that the conversation had started to become pointless. "Does anyone else think that we should quit for dinner now?" Larry asked. His two brothers immediately raised their hands. "We had to skip lunch because Darren was running late while we were getting ready."

"Um sure, we could uh quit for now," Bob replied. "Then after dinner we'll have some free time before our last meeting before bed," he announced.

"Good!" Elliot replied, standing up from his seat. "That gives me enough time to become one with nature," he said.

"Yeah, that's what we need after dinner," Kirk remarked as he got out of his chair and started taking it back to the table. "To see you running around naked."

"It helps me," Elliot flatly informed him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: On Your Own

Everyone had just finished dinner, and were still seated at the table. While most talked amongst each other, Joanna eyed the dirty plates around her, trying to fight the urge to get up and clean them.

"Now," Bob started. "What did everyone want to do? Should we have another session now? Or later? Maybe, uh, just, just wait until tomorrow?" he asked.

"With all do respect, I think we should just stick to the original plan and have some free time before another session tonight," Larry answered.

"I agree," Elliot declared.

"Okay, but um, may I suggest that you try to make a step towards overcoming some of those fears that were mentioned?" Bob requested.

"I'll climb a tree and get over my fear of heights," Elliot assured him as he stood up from his seat.

"As if seeing you naked on a rock wasn't enough, now we'll get to see you hanging form a tree," Kirk quipped.

"Ew," Stephanie responded from across the table.

"That's the smartest thing I've heard from her all day," Kirk stated, motioning to her.

"And that's the truth," Elliot added for him.

Stephanie, now obviously worried, turned and looked to Bob. "Dr. Hartley, the crazy person agreed with me! I don't think I like this!" she complained.

Bob blankly looked to her, still trying to figure out whether or not he could take her seriously. "I, I think you'll be fine Ms. Vanderkellan," he dryly replied.

Bob then looked over to Kirk. "How about you try admitting something true about yourself to everyone that you see out there?" he requested.

"I guess," Kirk replied, not sure that he really wanted to go through with it.

"Hey! Maybe we can split up for a little bit," Larry announced to his brothers.

Darryl looked to him and nodded, thinking that it was a good idea. It was something that had to be done sooner or later.

Darren, on the other hand, glared to him and crossed his arms. He did not want to split up at all. He felt that there was no reason to start that right now, out in the middle of the woods.

"Come on Darren," Larry begged. "It'll be a good experience for us. Besides, we ain't have to go that far from each other. We'll still be in the same camp."

Darren looked to him for a minute and then sighed in defeat as he dropped his arms to his sides.

"Good," Larry said.

"Let's meet back here when it gets dark out!" Elliot announced, trying to catch everyone before they completely lost interest.

As most people stood up and started taking their plates to the kitchen, Joanna began to relax a little. It wasn't that she was about to panic or anything, it was just that the dirty dishes annoyed her. To her, it was like someone running their finger nails down a black board.

Bob stayed in his spot while everyone else started to go off on their own. "Ms. Richardson?" he called over to her.

Joanna looked up from the dishes still left on the table. "Yes?" she responded.

"You wanted to talk to me alone?" he questioned, reminding her of his promise that he made earlier.

"Yeah," she answered, standing up and quickly grabbing the remaining dishes off the table. "Just let me at least make sure that these are all rinsed and I'll be right out," she told him.

"Okay," he said, watching her take his plate from in front of him. Really, he knew that he should have said something, but at the same time, he knew that it wasn't a good idea to just leave dirty dishes out either.

ooo

Kirk wandered on the trail that looped around the area of camp that they were staying. He knew that he would come across someone, but was dreading it. If he had to confess something, he felt like he was cheating if it was something that was trivial. There was some pressure on him to confess something big, something personal.

As he was walking, he started to hear a humming noise. He stopped and looked around, making sure that there wasn't anyone around him. He saw no one, but he still heard the humming. "Hello?" he called out, starting to get a little paranoid.

"You're disturbing the peace!" Elliot snapped.

"Oh God," Kirk mumbled, knowing very well that he shouldn't even think about looking up in the trees.

"This better be something important with all the noise that you were causing," Elliot stated.

Kirk took a deep breath. "All right," he started. "I'm Kirk Devane, and I come from Springfield Illinois," he announced. "And that's the truth."

"Congratulations," Elliot called down to him.

"Thanks Carlin, and congrats on your conquering heights," Kirk replied before he quickly started walking.

"Thank you!" Elliot replied.

Kirk then made his way further into the woods and stopped upon seeing Darren, who was examining a plant. He noted the odd, child like fascination that he had held towards the plant.

"Hey there Darren," Kirk greeted, standing beside him.

Darren stood up and smiled to him. It wasn't too often that someone would come up and just say hi to him, it was usually someone who wanted to talk to one of his brothers.

"I'm Kirk Devane and when I was seven years old, I told my cousin Linda that I would watch her dog for her while she went away to camp, and while she was gone, I forgot to close the gate to our backyard and her dog ran away, so I saved up as much money as could, but it still wasn't enough money to buy a new dog, so I got her a bunch of stuffed animal dogs. She wasn't too pleased with it, but I tried, and that's the truth," he informed him.

Darren smiled and nodded at Kirk right before throwing his arms around him and embracing him.

"Um, thanks Darren," Kirk responded, hesitantly returning the hug.

Darren pulled back and patted Kirk on the back.

"See ya Darren," Kirk said, continuing his walk. He got a few feet ahead and then realized something. His eyes widening as he turned back to see Darren back to staring at the plant. "Hey Darren! That's poison ivy, you don't wanna touch or eat it, or whatever you planning on doing with that!" he warned.

Darren stood up and then stepped back from the plant.

"Right! Just find something else to look at!" Kirk insisted.

Darren looked to Kirk and nodded and then moved on to a wild flower that was growing not too far from the poison ivy.

"Good choice!" Kirk stated and then turned back around and started walking.

ooo

Michael and Stephanie walked out along the edge of the lake. He wanted to go on the trail through the woods, but she refused.

"Are you really afraid of cheap clothing?" Michael asked as they walked together.

Stephanie laughed. "I know that I would never be caught dead in it, that counts towards fear right?" she implored.

"Yeah," Michael answered. He found it weird that someone could be afraid of a type of clothing. There was no way that she could feel the same way towards cheap clothing that he had felt towards rejection.

Stephanie glanced up to him and then looked back towards the ground. "Are you really afraid of being rejected?" she implored.

"Terrified," he said, keeping his head down to the ground. He then looked up to her. "I bet you never had to worry about it," he stated.

Stephanie laughed. "Of course not," she answered. She then smiled to him. "And don't worry, I would have rejected you right away if I was going to. I don't lie to waste time with giving people chances so I judge them rig then and there," she explained. That wasn't completely true, but she knew that it would help him a little. She did like him.

"Thank goodness," Michael sighed out in relief. He really was glad to hear that. "By the way," he started, stopping in his tracks. He looked to her, making sure that he had her attention. "Why did you come?" he inquired.

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "I had nothing better to do, and this weekend I was supposed to go out and get a job, but I don't really wanna do that. I'm just hoping that maybe my parents will get fed up with the money that they are spending to send me here and decide to let me back home," she explained.

Michael scrunched his brow in confusion. "You were kicked out?" he questioned in disbelief. For some reason, he pictured her as being the one whose parents wanted her to stay home.

Stephanie sighed. "Yeah, they think their teaching me this dumb lesson or something," she answered. "Weren't you kicked out?"

Michael shook his head. "I wanted to get out and be on my own," he informed her.

Stephanie looked to him with pity. "You poor thing! You must've had a bad childhood to think that being out there on your own is fun," she said.

Michael just laughed and continued on walking. Even though he knew that he shouldn't even be trying with this girl, he liked her. He wasn't sure how much yet, and with the fear of rejection, he didn't actually know what his limits were with her. He was willing to carry her a little over a quarter of a mile and listen to her as she whined. That had to be something, but he wasn't sure yet of what that was.

ooo

Bob and Joanna sat out on the dock on the lake as the sun set before them.

"Is it silly that what I want most is someone to watch this with every day?" she asked, smiling as she watched the scene before her.

"I don't think so," Bob answered, looking over to her. "It's like wanting someone to wake up to, or have dinner with. You, you don't want to be alone."

Joanna's smile faded as she lowered her head. "That's what I've been scared of lately," she admitted. "Usually, when a date would go bad or I would get ignored by the man I wanted to go out with, I would just think that's one date that didn't work out, it doesn't matter. You still have next weekend to go out with someone new," she explained, and then looked up to Bob. "But now, I think, that's another blown chance. If something was going to happen that it would've happened by now. I should be married, I should have one or two kids."

Bob looked down to the water. "Well, why uh don't you start out by telling me the kind of man that you're looking for?" he suggested.

Joanna shrugged as she went back to watching the sunset. "When I was younger, my dad moved us out into a rural area and bought an old inn. I was like six, and the guests always thought I was cute when I would help out, there was always someone there. It was fun. I loved it, and now I want a man that wants something like that. I want someone who wants to go out and move away from the crowded city and raise a family out there," she explained.

"I think that might be your problem right there," Bob started. "You, you set these standards, a very specific mold and any guy that deviates a little from it is automatically no good. You're looking for someone who likes the rural areas in the middle of Chicago," he explained.

Joanna slightly laughed in spite of herself as she looked over to Bob. "That's what I want though. I can't imagine finding someone and truly being happy with them if they keep me stuck here. I'm not asking to move right away, but maybe when we're a bit older, when we know that we can afford it and handle it," she told him.

"Have you ever considered moving out there and then finding a man that you like?" he implored.

Joanna looked down to her lap. "I can't right now. I have a job here that I need, and I ended up moving my mother here after daddy died. I'm needed here at the moment," she explained.

"Do you by any chance think that maybe you don't wanna change your life?" he inquired.

Joanna looked to him, her eyes slightly widened. She was about to say something, but jumped as she heard a splash not too far from where she sat.

"Michael!" Stephanie shrieked.

"I'm sorry Stephanie!" Michael apologized.

Joanna and Bob both got up and saw Stephanie propped up on one elbow in the shallow water right of the edge of the shore, while she pulled weeds and what not out of her hair.

Michael quickly offered his hand and helped her to her feet. "I'm so sorry!" he tried again, hoping that she might be able to let it go.

Stephanie just huffed. "Just get me back to the cabin!" she demanded.

Joanna stormed down the dock and made her way over to where the two were standing, less than a few yards away. "Were you two listening in on us?" she nearly shrieked.

Bob came up behind Joanna. "Are you all right?" he implored, wondering about the screaming he was hearing. He knew why Joanna was mad, but wanted to make sure that everyone was indeed, okay, before all the yelling started.

"She's fine!" Joanna snapped, keeping eyes narrowed on the two.

"It's not what you think," Michael stated. "We were walking by and we didn't want to disturb you so we sat down over here," he explained.

Stephanie stood there and crossed her arms. "As stupid as it sounds, it's true," she confirmed, although she lacked the genuine concern that Michael had when he explained it.

Joanna sighed. "Yeah, I guess it's not like you to even bothering caring about what's going on with other's," she said directly to Stephanie and then turned and started towards the cabins.

"Geeze, what's her problem?" Stephanie asked.

"She was trying to talk to me alone! She, she feels that her personal privacy was invaded!" Bob explained to her. He then looked back and forth between the two. "I want to talk to you two later," he stated and then went to catch up to Joanna. At the moment, he felt as if he were in charge of a group of kids up here.

Michael stared off towards Joanna with sympathy. He truly was sorry for what had happened just now.

"Michael!" Stephanie squealed. "Do you seriously feel bad about this?"

Michael looked to her and nodded. "Yes! I do! I know that we weren't actually spying on them, but I know that I would be upset if someone was listening in on a private conversation between me and someone else," he explained.

"We did nothing wrong though!" Stephanie argued. "Besides, I'm the one who fell in the water! I have nothing to wear now. I only had enough outfits for each day and I can't just go in there and completely destroy my perfectly planned out schedule for clothing," she explained. "I mean, it's not like I can re-wear something, that would be disgusting."

Michael just sighed. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "Maybe we can find something for you to wear around here that isn't too cheap," he suggested.

"Right, like there's even a store around here," she scoffed. "Let's just get back to the cabin so I can shower before we have to meet back together tonight," she said, grabbing his hand and starting to lead him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Relationships

Kirk laid on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "When do you think everyone else is going to come back? I still have four people to tell something to," he questioned.

Larry, who was looking out the window, watching for his brothers shrugged. "I don't know," he answered. "I'm just waiting for Darryl and Darren," he said and then turned back to look to Kirk. "You don't think that they got lost do you?"

"Give 'em a few more minutes," Kirk responded, not sounding too concerned.

"Ew!" Stephanie shrieked.

Kirk slightly sat up and looked towards the window as Larry jumped and turned to face the window.

"I find that insulting!" Elliot responded.

"The princess is back," Kirk announced and then laid back down and continued staring up at the boring ceiling.

The door flew open and Joanna nearly stormed into the room and crossed her arms. Bob followed her, looking rather worried over the whole ordeal.

"Is it over Michael?" Stephanie whimpered as Michael lead her in, his arm around her while she tightly closed her eyes.

Kirk sat up and curiously watched the group. He had figured out that he had missed something and wanted to see if he could find out what it was.

"It's fine Steph, we're inside now. He's out of sight," Michael assured her, taking his back.

"You say that, but I just keep seeing it over and over again," she whined, finally gathering the courage to open her eyes.

"You're not helping with my fear of talking to women you know," Elliot stated as he walked in mostly dressed with his pants back on, buttoning his flannel shirt.

Larry looked over to Stephanie with confusion. "I hate to break it to you," he started, as he approached her. "But if you're going to go swimming, you're supposed to wear a bathing suit."

Stephanie slightly turned to face him. "I know," she angrily replied, glaring to him.

Larry looked back to Kirk and shrugged. "I'm gonna go look for my brothers," he announced before leaving the room.

"Well I'm going to go take a shower and hope that it can at least get rid of some of the smell from that stupid lake," Stephanie explained before following Larry out of the cabin.

Michael sighed and looked to Joanna, who was still upset about earlier. "Jo Jo?" he gently called over to her. Now was his chance to talk to her without Stephanie whining and interrupting him.

"What?" she snapped, turning to face him. Right now, she was just not in the mood to hear more about how it was all an accident.

"You have to believe me!" he begged. "We didn't mean to be spying on you and Doctor Hartley! We were just sitting there, talking to each other. We don't even know what you two were talking about! I swear!" he desperately explained.

Joanna sighed. She still did like Michael, he could be annoying at times, but she still liked him. "Okay," she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. "But do you promise that you didn't hear anything that we talked about?" she firmly questioned.

"I promise," Michael responded, happy and relieved at the fact that he still had a friend and not a new enemy.

Joanna nodded and left the cabin.

Michael watched her leave and then sighed as he followed her out the door.

Kirk watched the door for a second and then looked to Bob and Elliot. "So, anything new?" he implored.

"Yeah," Elliot answered. "Stephanie saw me naked and now I feel a little less comfortable with myself," he flatly stated.

Bob turned and looked to Elliot. "Mr. Carlin, I don't think that you should let what Ms. Vanderkellan says influence how you feel about yourself. She uh, she tends to be a little self centered," he dryly explained.

He looked to him. "Easy for you to say, she hasn't insulted you yet," Elliot replied before turning and leaving.

Bob then looked over to Kirk. "So, did much happen here?" he questioned.

Kirk shook his head. "Larry went out to make sure that his brothers weren't lost," he informed him.

Bob nodded and then sat down at the table. "How did you're little confession thing go?" he inquired.

"It went well, and that's the truth," he replied.

"Good," Bob said. He was just waiting for everyone to start meeting here for the next session. If anything, tonight was going to be very interesting.

ooo

Joanna walked into the girl's cabin and sat down on her bed. It wasn't much, a plain room big enough for two bunk beds and then a bathroom connected to it. Their cabin was just a little smaller than the the boy's which held four bunk beds and a bathroom.

Right now, she just had to be alone for a minute and calm down before she went and talked to everyone tonight.

Looking around the room, she spotted something sticking out from under Stephanie's pillow. She knew that she shouldn't be snooping around, but she wanted to know what it was, and she was alone at the moment which never helped when you wanted to avoid going through someone's things. Besides, she figured that it wasn't anything too bad, maybe just a picture of herself winning something or something like that.

Taking a quick glance out the window and towards both doors, the one that went outside and the other to the bathroom, she stood up and made her way over to the bed. Carefully, she lifted the pink frilly pillow that Stephanie had brought herself, and stared at the picture that it hid. With her eyes glued to it, her fingertips gingerly grabbed onto the corner of the photo and lifted it.

It was a picture of a little girl. She looked an awful lot like Stephanie, but it wasn't her. It couldn't be. The photo looked somewhat recent, as if taken a year or two ago, and the little girl was only around three or four. She had shoulder length blonde hair, cute smile with dimples in her cheeks. Her eyes were dark blue, or at least the dress that she was wearing made her eyes look dark blue.

She turned the photo around to the back and saw 1975 written. She turned the picture back over and stared at the image some more, trying to figure out who she was. She didn't think that Stephanie was married or had any kids. Maybe a niece?

"Joanna!" Stephanie shrieked as she rushed over and snatched the picture out of her hand, her other hand tightly holding her robe closed. "How dare you go through my things!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry. I know I just got mad at you for the same thing," Joanna replied, feeling genuinely guilty. She went and stood back by her bed. Her eyes remained on the picture as Stephanie took it and placed it back under her pillow. "If it helps, she is a cute little girl."

Stephanie slightly smiled, calming down a little. "I know," she replied. She had her back to Joanna as she started going through her clothes. "I really wish there was a store around here so that I could buy an extra outfit," she stated.

"You can borrow some of my clothes," Joanna offered.

Stephanie turned back and looked to Joanna. "I don't think so," she slightly laughed. "I might just keep this on," she stated, referring to the robe that she was wearing.

Joanna, as a joke, went through her bag and pulled out the maid outfit that Elliot had given her. "How about this?" she asked, starting to laugh.

Stephanie looked over the outfit. "Is that silk?" she questioned, grabbing at the material. She was a little surprised that she owned anything like that.

"You want it?" Joanna implored, disbelieving her.

"Sure, why the hell not?" Stephanie replied. It was better than re-wearing something, and better than having people think that she could sink to wearing torn up jeans and a cotton button down shirt. She did have a reputation to uphold here.

"You can keep it if you want," Joanna offered as she handed her the dress.

Stephanie took the dress and laid it down on her bed. She then grabbed the other suitcase and started going through it to find a pair of shoes to go with the outfit.

Joanna stood there, still fixated on the picture that she had found. She knew that she shouldn't be, but she was. She hadn't expected this girl to actually really care that much about someone else to keep their picture like that. She had figured that she was too preoccupied with herself to make time for anyone else. "Do you mind me asking who that is?" Joanna meekly implored.

Stephanie turned back and softly laughed. "Now Joanna, I know that I'm a fascinating person, but I have to draw the line somewhere," she answered and then turned back to find her shoes.

Joanna just nodded. "Okay," she said, completely understanding.

Stephanie sighed and turned back to Joanna. "Well if you're gonna beg," she stated and then pulled the picture back out and handed it to Joanna. "She's my daughter. Renee, we call her Rini," she explained.

Joanna looked up to her in disbelief. "I didn't know you had a daughter," she stated.

"Well," Stephanie started. "I did until my ex husband decided to kidnap her," she bitterly mentioned.

Joanna looked up to her with sympathy. "I'm sorry," she genuinely offered.

Stephanie took back her picture. "Don't worry about it, my family's loaded and I always get my way, so I'll get her back in a little bit," she informed her as she looked down and studied the photo.

Joanna was starting to get a little concerned. "You really aren't worried about her?" she questioned.

"Of course I am, but like I said, I always get my way," Stephanie explained as she put the picture down on the bed.

Joanna offered a small smile. "I hope you get her back soon," she said as she turned and started to leave. She stopped for a moment and looked back to see Stephanie staring down at the picture and then turned and left.

ooo

In the rec. room, Bob sat on one of the dining room chairs while Joanna and Michael sat on the couch with a space between them that he was saving for Stephanie. Elliot sat on the table while Kirk sat in the chair by the fireplace.

Michael looked over to Joanna. "I would like to take this chance to apologize again for earlier," he said.

Joanna sighed and then turned and smiled to him. "Michael, really. It's fine. I'm okay," she assured him. "You're forgiven."

"Thank you," Michael responded, relieved.

"What happened between you two?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah, seriously," Kirk added. "I feel left out over here."

"Nothing," Joanna casually answered.

"Seriously?" Kirk implored.

"Now listen, if she doesn't wanna talk about it then uh, she, she doesn't have to," Bob explained. Right after he said that, he found it an odd statement to be coming from a psychologist.

Elliot then looked over to Michael. "While we're waiting, are you and miss blondie an item or are you just her personal slave?" he questioned.

"We're just friends," Michael assured him, although, he wasn't sure that he just wanted to stay that way.

"Really? Because I would be expecting a lot more for all of that work you've done for her," Elliot responded.

Kirk looked per to Michael with interest. "Well if you two aren't together, how much of a chance do you think that I have with her?" he asked.

Michael laughed. "About as much of a chance that Doctor Hartley has with Joanna," he stated, not realizing exactly what he was alluding too.

"Michael!" Joanna snapped, looking to him with disbelief.

"I, I think we should uh, change the subject now," Bob insisted. He knew that there was nothing really to the comment made, but the last thing that he wanted was for the rumor to spread that anything happened between him and a patient.

"I was saying that there never could be anything between you two," Michael argued.

"I'll second that," Elliot stated. "I've seen him with his wife. I don't think he could cheat. Besides, if I had a wife that looked like her I know I would never leave her."

"Thank you Mr. Carlin," Bob replied, not knowing exactly how to take the comment. Emily was not what he wanted them to be talking about here.

"I don't know. His wife is cute, but she reminds me of the teacher on that one movie, The Birds," Kirk informed him. "Kind of creeps me out at times. You know? Sometimes she reminds me of when she was still alive and standing there with those distant gray eyes, then other times she makes me think of when the lady was laying on the cement, all dead, pale, and bloody. Kind of disturbs me." He then looked to Bob, "and that's the truth."

"And what a time for you to tell it," Bob replied, sarcastically smiling to him.

Joanna's face lit up with realization. "You know, she does!" she agreed. She then looked to Bob. "Has anyone ever mentioned it to her?" she inquired.

Bob shrugged. "I never heard anyone say anything to her," he answered.

Larry walked into the room, leading his brothers. They all three grabbed chairs from the table and sat down in the middle of the room. "What did we miss?" Larry questioned.

"Doctor Hartley's wife looks like the teacher on The Birds," Michael replied. He then looked over to Bob. "But I've never seen that movie, so I don't really know whether or not it's true," he admitted.

"We ain't ever seen it either," Larry mentioned.

"How could you have not seen that movie?" Kirk asked. "That's like saying you've never seen Psycho! Or The Godfather! The Exorcist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gone With the WInd," he stated.

"I saw The Exorcist once, thought I was possessed for a week," Elliot stated.

"Yes, I remember that quite well. I also remember when you thought that the mafia was after you," Bob mentioned.

Elliot looked back to him. "The good old days," he stated and then turned back.

"Right," Bob dryly responded.

Stephanie then walked through the door, wearing the maid outfit. The top was low cut and fit perfectly to her body. The skirt came up about six inches from the knees, not as bad as Joanna had earlier thought it would be.

All the men in the room stared at her as he black heels clicked on the floor while she made her way over to the couch and sat down in the spot that had been reserved for her. "All right, I'm here," she announced, already sounding bored.

"I'll say," Elliot responded, his eyes glued to her.

"You think you can wear that tomorrow too?" Kirk implored.

"Ew! Wear something two days in a row?" she squealed in disbelief, looking to him as if he had to be insane.

"I would get over the fact that it's not clean," Kirk assured her.

"I, I uh, think that maybe we should um, get started," Bob announced, trying to get the attention off of Stephanie, although he knew that it was a losing battle.

Joanna caught on to what he was doing and decided to start off talking this time, since she was the only one there who wasn't distracted. "Last week this new man started working at the ad agency that I work at, and I think that next week, I might just gather up the courage to ask him out," she announced.

"Ooh!" Stephanie squealed, looking to Joanna with excitement. "What's he look like?" she implored.

Joanna smiled. "Well, he's tall, sandy blonde hair, nicely built," she started describing.

"What color eyes?" Stephanie questioned.

"Brown," Joanna replied.

"I like blue better," she stated.

"Do you want this to be something serious?" Bob implored.

Joanna looked up to him and smiled. "Maybe," she answered. "I don't know him too well yet, but I have worked with him," she admitted.

Joanna smiled as she thought for a second about whether or not she should ask what she wanted, but she thought that it couldn't hurt. "Did you know right away when you met Mrs. Hartley that you wanted something more serious than just a date or two?" she inquired.

"Actually, no," he admitted. "It, uh, it took a few dates with her," he explained, avoiding the fact that he had even been seeing someone else up until the weekend before they got married.

"Must be nice being married," Elliot commented.

"I enjoy it," Bob stated, looking over to him.

"I don't think I could get married. If she married me, she would have to agree to take in Darryl and Darren," Larry explained.

"I don't think I could either. Most girls tend to get a little angry when they find out that you've been lying to them," Kirk mentioned.

"I don't think it's that you guys can't get married, I just think that you need to work on a few things. Like, like Larry, Darryl, and Darren. If any of you wanted to get married, you would have to work on being separated from each other, and Kirk, you would just uh have to work on telling the truth more often," Bob argued.

"I've never even been in a serious relationship," Michael flatly confessed.

Darren tapped on Larry's shoulder and looked to him for a minute. Larry then looked over to Bob. "Doctor Hartley? Darren wants to know what you would consider a serious relationship," he said.

"Well," Bob said, thinking about it. "A serious relationship would be uh, a relationship in which you two only see each other, you uh, you're together for more than just a couple of months. You two would love each other, respect each other, understand each other," he explained.

"I've never been in a relationship longer than a month," Michael clarified.

"I think the longest I've been in one is about three months," Joanna responded, really trying hard to remember.

"I had a girlfriend for six months, that was how long it took her to get sick of my brothers," Larry announced. He looked over and saw them both glaring to him. "I dumped her for you didn't I?"

Darryl and Darren stopped and exchanged looks. They then nodded to each other and then looked to Larry and nodded.

"I don't do relationships," Elliot cynically remarked.

"I've been engaged before. The whole thing all together lasted about four years," Stephanie casually informed them, looking down as she examined her nails.

"I almost got married once," Kirk mentioned.

"No you didn't," Michael and Elliot simultaneously argued. Michael looked back to Elliot and laughed.

"That's my line to say," Elliot dryly warned.

"Sorry," Michael replied, starting to shy away.

"Either way, its right," Kirk sighed. "But I did stay with the same girl for a year."

"You mean a month?" Elliot implored.

Kirk looked to him and sighed. "Fine, two months," he finally admitted.

"Do you think we'll judge you based on the amount of time that you have been with one girl?" Bob inquired.

Kirk looked to him and shrugged. "I don't really know," he answered. "Are you judging me based on the length of my relationships?" he asked.

"No," Bob replied. "I don't uh, I don't judge you based on anything, Mr. Devane."

Michael looked over to Stephanie. "Why did the engagement end?" he questioned.

"Decided that I didn't like him anymore," she responded. "He was getting on my nerves and annoying me."

"You broke up with someone because they annoyed you after a while?" Bob questioned.

"Now see, I think you're judging her on her relationships," Kirk remarked.

"Am not," Bob argued. "I just want to know if that was really the reason."

Stephanie sighed and looked to Bob. "He was going out of his way to annoy me. Now, do you really expect me to marry someone when I can barely spend an hour with them? I don't think so," she explained.

Joanna looked to her with concern, wanting to ask if she was actually talking about her ex husband.

Stephanie looked over to Joanna. "What?" she inquired.

"Nothing," she replied, shaking her head.

"I think it's a good reason. Sounds like all you would be doing is fighting after a while," Kirk stated.

"I could never purposely annoy someone," Michael said.

"We know," Elliot assured him.

"I like that," Stephanie said, smiling to Michael.

Kirk saw what she was doing. "I don't like to annoy people either," he announced.

"You may not be trying to," Stephanie remarked.

Kirk just sat back and pouted.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Little Insecure

Joanna walked into the cabin and saw Stephanie sitting on her bed, staring at the picture of Renee.

"I have't known you long, but it's still surprising to see you putting someone else before you," she mentioned as she went and sat down on her bed.

Stephanie looked up and smiled from the picture. "Well, when someone perfect like me goes and creates something, you know that they're going to be perfect too, and perfection certainly deserves admiration," she explained.

"What kind of things do perfect people go out do together?" Joanna asked.

"Well, I would take her to get her hair done. We would go to see the ballet, take her to her ballet classes. I would do make up for her if she wanted it done, nothing much, but enough to teach her the proper way to use it. She likes to chase the ducks around at the park so I would take her there, and then over to the beach," she answered.

Joanna softly laughed. She couldn't picture this lady going to a park and allowing her daughter to play with animals. "Can I ask you something a little more personal?" she questioned, suddenly intrigued with the story.

"Tell me what you were talking to Doctor Hartley about," Stephanie insisted, setting the picture down on the bed next to her.

Joanna sighed. It was only fair. "Well, I'm afraid of ending up alone," she replied.

Stephanie laughed. "That's a stupid fear," she responded.

Joanna glared to her. "I trusted you!" she angrily replied. She stood up and started towards her suitcase to grab everything that she needed for bed.

Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, look. You're no me when it comes to looks, but I'm sure if you just took some time and effort, you could get somewhat close," she explained.

Joanna, who was hurt just seconds ago, decided to take her words as a slight compliment and turned around to face her. "You really think so?" she implored, suddenly interested.

Stephanie smiled to her as she studied her. "Let me do your hair and make up tomorrow, and you'll see the difference," she offered.

Joanna shrugged, what did she have to lose? "Okay. I'l give it a try," she replied, smiling to her.

ooo

Over in the other cabin, the men were all in their beds getting ready to fall asleep.

"Doctor Hartley?" Elliot asked.

"What is it Mr. Carlin?" Bob sighed in response. As far as he was concerned, today was a long day and all he wanted to do was go to sleep and start over tomorrow. Anything that anyone had to tell him, could wait until the morning.

"What happens if someone in here brought a tick in with them that can give us all lyme disease?" Elliot implored.

"Oh dear God!" Michael cried as he quickly threw his covers off and jumped out of bed. "I never thought to check myself!"

Kirk sat up and turned on the light, allowing everyone to it up and watch as Michael ferociously ran his hands through his hair and checked the rest of his body through his clothes.

Darryl stood up and looked over the edge of the bunk above him. He whispered something to Larry and then got back into bed.

"Larry wants you to know that most ticks are harmless," he informed him.

Michael stopped and looked to him. "Only most? I'm not that lucky!" he replied and then continued checking himself.

"I think you're fine," Kirk told him, wanting only to just go to sleep.

"You don't know that," Elliot responded as he lightly checked himself.

"Guys, just, just let him finish checking himself. The sooner he finishes, the sooner we can all sleep," Bob announced to everyone.

"Thank you," Michael said, calming down as he went and sat back down on the edge of his bed. "I have this weird fear that someday I'll go camping and there will be these huge ticks that'll attack me," he admitted.

"Well now I feel like I have to watch Emily every time there's a bird around," Bob remarked, hoping to just be able to go to sleep now.

"I don't like giant mosquitoes myself, they like to bombard," Larry casually informed them. "And Darryl here is afraid of building fires and Darren is afraid of leprechauns," he explained.

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" Elliot implored.

"He's right, let's go to sleep. We'll ask Joanna and Zsa Zsa what they can't stand tomorrow," Kirk stated.

Everyone agreed and Kirk went ahead and turned off the lights.

"Wait? Why did you call Stephanie Zsa Zsa?" Michael asked, breaking the new silence.

"I thought it was pretty obvious," Kirk replied. "Fun to look at, but hard to listen to at times."

"Now see here!" Michael snapped, once again jumping out of bed.

Kirk rolled his eyes and turned on the lights. "What? Does someone here love someone else?" he questioned.

"He doesn't love her, she just already has him whipped," Elliot explained.

"Does not!" Michael called back to him.

"Oh, that's a convincing argument," Kirk replied.

"Hey!" Darryl and Darren both simultaneously yelled out, causing every one in the room to freeze and look to them.

"I believe you've upset my brothers," Larry stated.

Michael went ahead and silently got back into bed as Kirk turned out the lights for the last time that night.

ooo

The next morning, the men all sat in the rec room as they waited for Joanna to come and start their breakfast for them.

"Maybe our talking lat night kept them up," Kirk suggested. He slouched in his spot in the corner of the couch.

Elliot looked to him from his spot by the window. "I know it kept me up," he commented.

"You were the one that started it with your stupid tick question," Kirk replied, slightly glaring to him.

"I'm sorry, I've just never had a tick on me before," Michael informed them.

"Well I have, and it's not so bad," Kirk harshly responded.

Elliot blankly looked to him. "No you haven't," he corrected him.

Kirk sighed. "Fine, I haven't," he confessed.

Joanna then walked into the room, her make up all perfectly done with her hair pulled halfway back and slightly curled. Her button down shirt was tied right below her chest with her undershirt showing, that was Stephanie's solution to her wearing clothes that were too baggy.

"Hey there," Kirk greeted, looking her over as he smiled.

"Good morning Kirk," she returned the greeting and then headed right for the kitchen.

Stephanie shortly followed her and headed right for the kitchen. She didn't even stop to say hi to anyone.

"How was it?" Stephanie asked as soon as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. "Not that I even need to ask."

Joanna smiled to her. "They did notice me this morning," she informed her. "Usually, they would make remarks every once in a while, but they sort of just kind of ignore the fact that I'm a girl," she explained.

"Doesn't surprise me with the way that you were dressing," Stephanie remarked. "You should switch to sweaters rather than sweat shirts," she said.

Stephanie turned and started to leave.

"Thank you," Joanna called, catching her before she left.

Stephanie smiled as she briefly turned to her. "I know," she replied and then left.

**Thank you to my little sis who helped me with this. It's her birthday, so happy birthday to her! **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Overboard

"Thank you Joanna," Kirk said as she set the plate down in front of him.

"You're welcome," Joanna replied, smiling. She had been getting more attention this morning from the men, and she was really enjoying it.

"You look different. I like it," Elliot stated as she handed him his plate.

"I agree. You seem a tad slimmer and a little fresher," Larry added from across the table.

Stephanie smiled over to Joanna. "See Joanna? A little work can pay off," she told her.

Joanna smiled back to her as she finally took her seat at the table. She really was grateful to Stephanie for helping her out and giving her a few tips. Even though she wasn't interested in any of the men that she was with right now, she was gaining some confidence that would help her with the man that she liked at work.

"So when did everyone wanna have that first session of the day?" Bob asked. He too thought that Joanna looked nice today, but after the remark that Michael made yesterday, he was a little hesitant to say anything.

"Right after breakfast. I have something to share," Elliot flatly answered.

"I think you've already shared enough this weekend," Stephanie remarked, disgusted.

As soon as he caught on to what Stephanie was talking about, Michael looked up to Elliot with concern. "You know, you can get more ticks doing that," he mentioned. Since last night, that was the main thing on his mind.

"Nothing can take away that feeling of becoming one with yourself out there," Elliot defended himself.

"There's gotta be a better way," Kirk responded. He himself had seen Elliot a couple of times on past marathons, and he was getting a little tired of it.

"Don't knock it till you try it," Elliot argued.

"Fine, I will try it," Kirk sighed in defeat. He was getting curious now, if someone could get offended, get yelled at, and still fully desire to keep doing the same thing, there must be something to it.

"Ew," Stephanie moaned.

Kirk looked over to her and smirked. Yes, she could be annoying, but he decided that if he couldn't stop he might as well have some fun and see how far he could push her. "And I will definitely try it if she tries it too," he said, looking back to Elliot and motioning to Stephanie.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," Stephanie scoffed, wishing that they could just move on and change the subject already.

"Does that mean you're not going to now?" Elliot implored. He was kind of looking forward to having someone else try it. He didn't want Kirk right there with him, but he thought it would be nice to know that he wasn't the only person streaking the camp.

"No, I'll do it I just have to make sure that we're in two completely different parts of the camp," Kirk stated.

"I don't believe you," Elliot told him.

"Most people don't," Kirk remarked. "This time though, you can," he assured him.

Stephanie lowered her head and looked down to her plate. "I'm bound to be screwed up by the terrible images I must carry with me for the rest of my life," she announced more to herself, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"That hurt," Elliot dryly replied.

"Especially considering you haven't even seen me yet," Kirk added, again trying to see how worked up he could get her.

Bob sighed. He too was starting to get tired of this conversation. "Why, why don't we save this conversation for later on. Like when we're not all eating," he insisted.

"I for one agree," Michael firmly announced.

Elliot turned and glared to Michael. He knew completely, what he was doing. Just like Kirk was having fun playing games with little miss blondie, he liked to see how quickly he could get Michael to contradict himself. It was easy to do and it happened often enough.

Michael, who was currently eating, froze as soon as he saw Elliot out of the corner of his eye. Cautiously, he turned his head and looked over to him. "Of course, it is a free country and I do stand up for free speech," he added, trying to get back on Elliot's, almost decent side.

Kirk softly laughed as he shook his head. "You don't actually have an opinion on anything do you?" he inquired.

"He does. It just depends on who he's currently sucking up to," Elliot explained for him.

Michael was angry about the comment, and was about to argue and stand up for himself, but Elliot offered him the same glare and it forced him to just sit back and finish his breakfast without saying anything at all.

As Bob sat back and observed all of this, he started wondering how these people all got along and stuck together in a group.

ooo

"And then all I remember after that is trying my hardest to find that fork that he buried out in the back yard," Elliot explained. He sat on the seat in the window and looked around after he finished.

"That certainly is an interesting story," Bob replied. "Would you say that you were obsessed with finding this fork?" he questioned.

"Sounds like it," Kirk sighed, getting bored. He leaned his head back over the back of the couch and stared up to the ceiling.

"I was," Elliot agreed with him.

"One time Darryl, Darren, and I found a whole bunch of silverware buried out on the beach. Now we use it on a daily basis," Larry added, hoping to liven up the room a little.

"Ew," Stephanie squealed. "You might as well be using plastic."

Joanna looked over in disgust. She agreed with Stephanie. "I could never use anything I found like that," she informed them. Although, they already knew that.

"One time I was obsessed with finding this money that my cousin told me about. He told me that it was buried at the school. I went there early in the morning everyday that next week and started digging. Eventually I got caught and was suspended," Michael told them, his eyes down towards the ground as he thought back to the event. He then looked up to everyone. "All I heard from my cousin after that was, 'I've been waiting for it. What took you so long?"

"That's horrible," Joanna replied, looking to him with sympathy. As annoying as she could find him at times, he could definitely make her feel sorry for him at times.

Elliot looked around the room and then shrugged. "Did we just forget about my fork?" he implored. "I still go back sometimes just to see if I can find it," he added, hoping to get the attention back to him.

Bob decided to go ahead and go along with him. "Doesn't someone else own that house now?" he asked, a little concerned.

"Yes. So?" Elliot flatly responded.

"That's, that's trespassing Mr. Carlin. That's against the law," Bob explained to him.

"I go at night while they're sleeping. They think the neighbor's dog is the one sneaking over and digging the holes," Elliot told him.

Kirk decided that if he had to listen to this story, that he might as well be a part of it. "I'll be the one to ask the obvious. Why do you care so much about a stupid fork?" he questioned.

"It was stolen," Elliot answered.

"I know that feeling," Stephanie softly mentioned.

Joanna looked over to Stephanie. No one else seemed to catch the comment like she had, but then again, she was the only one that knew about Renee. That was when she noticed, she forgot to ask her the question that she was going to ask last night. She was side tracked by the offer of a make over, and she completely forgot about it. Maybe when this was over she could try asking her.

"So do we. We put our chair outside on the balcony of our apartment to dry after we painted it and the next morning it was gone," Larry informed him.

"I used to get boyfriends stolen away from me," Joanna confessed. She looked around the room and saw the others looking to her and then smiled as she thought back to this morning. "I have to mention though, getting noticed by you guys this morning was nice for a change," she stated.

"You're welcome," Stephanie said. Joanna softly laughed and returned the smile.

"You do look pretty today," Michael acknowledged.

It was that instant that something clicked in Stephanie. Even though they weren't dating, they had just met and were just friends, but she didn't like him making that comment to another woman. "Of course, she never could have done that without me," she snobbishly announced. Her jealousy showing quite clearly.

Joanna quickly turned and glared to her. "What was that?" she snapped. She had been so happy about how she looked, and she had gained some confidence, and now, her taking all the credit made her feel as if she really couldn't be beautiful on her own, that she really shouldn't be feeling confident at all.

Stephanie did feel a small amount of remorse over her comment, but she couldn't back down now. Not with everyone around and Michael right there. She couldn't have them figure out that she got jealous over one remark. "Oh come on Joanna, you know that you needed me to show you what you were doing. Without me here to fix you up, they never would have even thought to notice you," she argued.

"Girls! This is a session for us to talk as a group. Not, not for you two to start fighting," Bob explained, getting irritated. He had the sense to let the fight take its course for a little bit, but now he could see that it was just going to keep lasting until someone said something.

Kirk leaned over to Elliot. "Two bucks it get physical," he whispered.

"Deal," Elliot accepted.

Joanna stood up from her seat and turned to face Stephanie. "I can get attention from any man I want without you here acting like you're so much better than the rest of us and teaching me how to use make up like I'm some young teenager who doesn't know any better!" she firmly argued, crossing her arms.

"Believe me, I could never seriously treat you like a teenager," Stephanie scoffed, remaining calm in her chair as if she weren't at all affected by Joanna's words. She knew that she was getting her more and more irritated by acting like she didn't care.

"Ms. Vanderkellan! And Ms. Richardson! Stop fighting before one of you says or does something you're going to regret," Bob warned, although, he could tell that neither of them were listening.

Joanna placed her hands on her hips, smirking as she looked over her. "You really do think your'e perfect don't you? Better than all of us here," she bitterly inquired.

"You're being serious right now?" Stephanie laughed as if she should have known the answer all along.

That was the final straw with Joanna. Right now, all she wanted to do was slap that smug little smile off her face, but she couldn't. She was better than that, at least, she liked to think so. "Well if you're so damn perfect then why couldn't you hold onto your daughter?" she spat, not really thinking through what she was saying, just blurting out something to finally get to her. As soon as she realized what she had said though, she regretted it. Her face dropped and she looked to her with sympathy.

Stephanie's smile quickly faded. Joanna had found her weak spot. She tried to say something, but her lips just quivered with no sound being produced. The tears started to form in the rims of her eyes. Her eyes were locked on Joanna's wishing deeply that she could have brought up anything else, anything at all, just not that. At the same time though, she started thinking, that she was right, it was her fault.

Slightly turning away from everyone, Stephanie got up and hurried out of the room. Joanna just lowered her head, mentally kicking herself for what she had said.

"And you just crossed the line," Bob pointed out the obvious. He wasn't meaning to be mean by it, he just wanted Joanna to think about something to make up for it right now.

Kirk softly laughed, looking to Joanna with surprise. "Damn Joanna, I thought you might tame her, but I never thought you'd actually slay her," he stated.

Elliot looked over to Michael who was dumbly staring in the direction of where Stephanie had been sitting. "Aren't you supposed to run after her?" he implored.

"I-I don't, I don't know now," Michael nervously admitted. That last bit of information was a bit much to just take in right then and there. He then looked to Joanna. "Does she really have a daughter?" he asked. He heard it pretty clearly, as did everyone else, but there was a small chance that he had misheard her.

"Yes," Joanna absently answered. She was distracted by her own thoughts, wondering what felt worse, having Stephanie make her feel like she was nothing on her own, or being the one to completely tear someone down in front of everyone.

Bob sighed, he knew that this session was done. The only thing left to do now was to make sure that Stephanie was all right. He himself though, was a bit surprised with the fact that she had a daughter. He just had a hard time seeing her as a mother. "Well, I'm gonna go talk to her," he announced, excusing himself from the room.

"Wait!" Joanna called out to him. "I said it, I'll go talk to her," she insisted. She felt bad now and wanted to get things worked out as soon as possible.

"All right," Bob replied, thinking that that was the better choice. That way she could apologize to her.

Joanna nodded and then headed out the door.

After she left, the room fell silent and Elliot turned to Kirk. "You owe me two dollars," he said, keeping his voice hushed.

"I don't have it this second," Kirk sighed.

"Don't make me become obsessed with you," Elliot warned, causing Kirk to nervously look to him.

"Did he steal from you too?" Larry asked, looking over to Elliot and Kirk.

"Of course," Kirk quickly answered.

Elliot looked to him, and by instinct was about to call him out on his lie, but this time made sure to keep quiet.

Bob suspiciously looked to them. "I, I don't believe that. Mr. Carlin would be more upset and you wouldn't just steal," he stated.

"I leant it to him. He needed it before we got here for the cab that he took to your office," Elliot explained. "I told him I would stop correcting him if he stopped lying all the time. It didn't work."

"I see," Bob replied, still not believing it. The fact though, was that he was sure that was the closest to the truth that he was going to get out of them right now.

"Doctor Hartley? Am I a bad person to be upset with Stephanie for not telling me about her daughter?" Michael implored.

"Mr. Harris, you can't, you can't help how you feel," Bob responded. "But, you also can't seriously expect her to apologize for not telling you. You two just met a couple days ago. I'm sure that you uh, have things that you haven't told her yet."

"I guess," he reasoned with himself.

"I'd be more concerned about the father," Kirk said.

Michael's eyes widened. That, to him was a brand new thought. "But, but Doctor Hartley calls her Ms. Vanderkellan. Miss!" he argued, starting to panic.

"I thought you said you two had nothing," Elliot replied.

"This is news to me too!" Michael announced. He himself wasn't quite sure of his feelings until he had just heard about Stephanie's daughter.

"Mr. Harris, I uh, I think maybe you had better talk to her after Ms. Richardson gets back," he suggested, trying to get Michael to relax. "From what I know, she isn't married," he added, again trying to get him to remain calm.

"Wouldn't it be funny if she was married to a football player and she told him about you?" Elliot remarked.

"No!" Michael answered, his voice starting to get more high pitched.

"I didn't see a wedding ring," Larry informed him.

"That doesn't mean anything. People take their rings off for a a lot of reasons. My dad took his off when ever he traveled away from home so that he wouldn't lose it," Kirk argued.

"And a football player could certainly afford to get her a nice one," Elliot mentioned.

"But she told me that she was kicked out of her parent's house. Why would she be kicked out and looking for a job if she as married to someone rich?" Michael questioned, gaining back some of his ability to think as some of the shock was wearing off.

"I've told people I was kicked out," Kirk mentioned, completely putting Michael back on edge.

"Liar," Elliot accused him.

"So no one else can be one?" Kirk asked, getting his point across.

Michael just sat there and nervously sighed.

**Wrote this in my notebook today during my four hour break. Hope this chapter turned out good enough. Let me know what you think. **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Lucky Ones

Joanna cautiously opened the door to the cabin. She saw Stephanie sitting on the edge of her bed, staring down towards the ground.

As soon as Stephanie realized she wasn't alone, she quickly wiped the tears from her face and looked up to her, trying to maintain some sort of composure. "What is it?" she asked.

Joanna stepped in and closed the door behind her. "I wanted to apologize for what I said," she began. She was about to go on and explain to her that she was just upset, but it just did not appear to be necessary anymore.

Stephanie nodded and looked back towards the ground. "Right," she absently responded.

Joanna nodded as she watched her for a brief moment. She had come too soon and all there was to do now was leave and try again another time. "I see," she softly replied as she turned to leave.

The words of false understanding hit her. "I don't think you do!" Stephanie angrily snapped, quickly turning to look to her.

Joanna slightly jumped back, but remained standing there for a second before turning back and waiting for her to continue. Although Stephanie sounded mad, her eyes conveyed more of helplessness.

"I have no idea where my eight year old daughter is or how she's doing! She just turned eight last month and I missed her birthday! All because her father is mad at me and I decided to pick her up from school five minutes late! Five minutes Joanna! She has friends Natalie and Gabi that she liked to talk to and told me that she would like it if I could give her a few minutes!" Stephanie explained, fighting back tears.

Afraid to actually say anything yet, Joanna looked to her with pity as she hesitantly approached her.

Stephanie sighed as she looked down to her lap. "Carl didn't even know how to take care of the damn dog let alone a little girl," she remarked. "And now she's paying because I walked out on him."

"Why did you leave?" Joanna carefully implored, bracing herself to be yelled at.

"I left him right after Renee's ballet recital. She was six years old and wanted more than anything for her daddy to be there and after so many, many strikes, he didn't show up," she bitterly explained.

"I'm sorry," Joanna replied, remaining stoic.

"Yeah?" Stephanie softly laughed in spite of everything. "What are you gonna do about it?" she questioned, looking up to her.

There was no answer to that. "I don't know," she quietly admitted.

"I don't either," Stephanie hoarsely stated.

ooo

Michael paced the floor in front of the couch. He was worried, worried about Stephanie and everything that had just happened here.

As Larry, Darryl, and Darren sat at the table watching him, Darren leaned over and poked Larry on the shoulder.

"What is it Darren?" Larry asked, turning back to him. He sat there and looked to him for a minute. He then took a second and glanced to Michael and back to Darren. "No, I don't think he's trying to wear down the floor."

"I think he is," Elliot responded. He sat on the couch, his head going back and forth following Michael.

"I think you need to calm down," Kirk stated from his spot by the window.

"I'm sorry! I can't!" Michael replied. He had too much on his mind right now. He wanted to go and follow Joanna to the cabin, but he couldn't. He was afraid.

"You know that you're just walking back and forth right?" Elliot questioned.

"I know," Michael sighed.

"If I were you, I'd be running away. You don't know what kind of man she might still be with," Elliot said.

"Look you guys, I understand curiosity, but I really think that we should refrain from talking about Ms. Vanderkellan while she is out of the room," Bob informed them. He had been standing near the door, waiting for Joanna to come back and tell him how everything is going.

"Hey, I understand that," Kirk agreed.

"What if she was so emotional because she's already pregnant again with her football playing husband?" Elliot flatly inquired, causing Michael to stop dead in his tracks.

"Darryl says that that was a bit uncalled for," Larry announced.

Elliot looked over to the trio. "Yeah? Well Kirk says that you should stop putting words in people's mouths," he replied.

"Mr. Carlin, you're about to my first ever patient that I've had to put in a time out," Bob warned.

"Joanna and little miss beauty queen get in a fight and tear each other down in front of everyone and I'm the one you wanna put in a time out?" Elliot questioned. "Darryl says that you need to get your priorities straight," he flatly told him.

Bob looked over to Darryl and saw him nodding in agreement. "Fine," he breathed out, not really caring what they were talking about anymore.

"I'm just wondering why everyone wants Stephanie to be married," Michael announced, although, there was a lot more on his mind.

"Liar!" Kirk accused. He then smiled and looked around the room to everyone. "Damn does that feel good to be able to call someone else one rather than beige called one."

"What do you mean?" Michael implored.

"He means that you're probably afraid of many things right now, like whether or not it's all true and why she didn't tell you any of this stuff," Larry explained.

"Take it from me, ignorance is bliss," Kirk mentioned, trying to help Michael feel a little better.

"Of course, because that's the only time that you're not lying," Elliot responded. He then looked to Michael. "Maybe she didn't tell you because she likes you too much," he stated.

Michael looked to him with surprise. First off, because he had said something to help him out here, and second, because that was something he hadn't thought about yet.

ooo

"Are you really that scared to go back there?" Joanna implored. She sat on her bed, her back up against the wall, slouching just enough so that her head wouldn't hit the top bunk.

"I'm not scared," Stephanie responded. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she held the picture of her daughter, staring at it. There was a longing in her eyes as she thought back to the way that things used to be, with her little Rini with her.

"Hmm."

Stephanie looked up to Joanna and smirked. "What do you think Michael's doing right now?" she implored, trying to change the subject and get her thoughts focused on something else.

Joanna laughed. "He was freaking out when I left," she answered.

Stephanie nodded, smiling to herself. Her smile faded quickly though. "I guess I owe you, like. Well, like an uh," she stopped for a second. "You know for what I said."

Joanna held her hand up to stop her. "I get it, and it's fine," she told her. The more that she thought about it, she found it a little cute, she was jealous over the comment that Michael made to her, meaning she liked Michael. There was that, and then there was something else that she got out of it, Stephanie Vanderkellan was jealous of her for a moment. That, could bring a small smile to her at anytime.

"Oh good, I didn't want to have to actually finish that," she sighed in relief.

"So, why don't you wanna go back?" Joanna questioned.

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't want them asking questions about Carl and Rini," she confessed. "The more I talk about them, the more I think about them, and when that happens I get depressed and stressed out and it doesn't even matter because I can't do anything more," she explained.

"You can just tell them that you don't want to talk about it," Joanna offered. "I mean, I know it seems like all we do is pick on each other at times, but that group of people over there, you can trust them."

"Right," Stephanie replied.

Joanna sat forward on the edge of her bed. "Really, think about it. You have Elliot who has no friends, therefore no one to tell. Kirk lies all the time, so no one would believe him anyways if he did repeat what we said. Michael would never purposely do anything to upset any of us. Larry is too busy with his brothers, and his brothers don't talk," she explained. She could see it in Stephanie's eyes that she was starting to convince her. "And besides, no one there actually has any room to judge anyone else," she added.

Stephanie sighed as she grabbed her picture. "Let's go," she said in defeat.

"Good," Joanna replied, standing up and waiting for Stephanie.

Stephanie took one last glance at the picture in her hand before she got up and slowly started for the door.

They walked together over to the rec room and entered the now quiet room.

"All right every one, I'm back," Stephanie nonchalantly announced as she went and sat back down in her seat.

"How did everything go?" Bob asked as Joanna stopped to close the door.

"We're fine," she answered with a smile. She then looked to Bob for a second. "You know, we never actually got to finish that talk that we had started yesterday, you mind if we pick up on it after this?" she requested.

"Sure," Bob answered.

"Thanks," she replied and then went and sat down with the group.

"Son or daughter?" Larry instantly implored as soon as Stephanie was settled.

"Daughter, her name's Renee, I call her Rini though sometimes," she answered. "I brought a picture of her."

"Can I see it?" Michael nervously requested.

"Here," Stephanie said as she handed it over to him.

Michael took the picture and stared down to it, examining it. "Wow Steph, looks like a little mini you," he stated. He was truly fascinated with the picture. It was a new part of this woman's life that he hadn't heard anything about yet.

Stephanie smiled. "I know," she beamed.

"Question," Kirk started as he raised his hand. "What happened to Renee?"

Stephanie looked over to him and sighed. That was the question that she was dreading. "Her asshole father took her," she bluntly explained. "My ex-husband, Carl, he didn't like me very much and he hated the fact that I got what I wanted out of the settlement, so he thought he would show me by taking Renee."

"Carl by any chance a football player?" Elliot questioned.

Stephanie looked to him with confusion as Michael looked up from the picture and glared to him. "No, he was a stock broker," she answered.

Elliot just nodded. "So, he can't beat people up, but he can take all their money," he said more to himself.

Stephanie smirked. "I beat him when it came to that game," she informed him.

"I once cheated a stock broker out of money," Kirk informed her.

All Elliot had to do this time was look over to him.

"I know, I know. I lied," Kirk said.

"Good," Elliot replied.

Michael handed the picture back to Stephanie. Once it was back in her hands, she smiled down to it, as she thought about her.

"What caused you two to separate?" Bob implored. Seemed to him like such a bitter divorce, there had to be more to it.

Stephanie turned to him. "Well, we were married for a year and I told him that he was spending too much time at work and he said it was necessary. Then I got pregnant, wasn't sure I was ready for a baby and he didn't care, and then I got excited about the baby, and he still didn't care. When Renee was born, he wasn't even there at the hospital. From that day on, he started spending more and more time away from home," she explained.

"Why did you two stay together so long?" Joanna questioned. If that were her situation, she would have left him pretty quickly.

The real answer was fear. She knew that he was mad at her and would do a lot to get back at her, and leaving him would make him even more upset. She had never loved out on her own, she didn't have a job, couldn't afford to take care of Renee on her own. Carl wasn't abusing her or hurting Renee so, it wasn't too bad, even thought they would get into fights, and he would do a lot of little things just to irritate her on a daily basis, when he was home.

"I didn't have a job, I didn't have a place to live and Carl wasn't really home too often, so it kind of was like we left him," she explained. "It wasn't until he started hurting Renee by breaking all the promises he made to her all the time that I decided to leave. We stayed with my parents for a little over a year before he took her. After that, my parents decided that I needed to move on and kicked me out to live on my own, so now I'm here in Chicago with my cousin Leslie," she informed them.

"How long has Renee been missing?" Bob implored.

"Six months," Stephanie replied without even having to think about it.

"Darren here was kidnapped once," Larry announced. "When he was little, he went down to the creek by himself and then couldn't find his way home. He thought he did, but ended up walking into the wrong house and the people decided to keep him."

"How long was he gone?" Kirk asked.

Larry looked back to his brothers and shrugged. He then turned back to everyone else. "We think about two weeks," he responded.

"I couldn't even imagine being kidnapped," Michael said.

Elliot looked over to him. "Please, you couldn't be kidnapped. You'd just agree to go with them just to avoid having someone mad at you," he remarked.

"I might as well have, it's not like my parents cared," Michael responded.

"Now Mr. Harris, I know that you're parents were awful critical of you as a child, but I really do think that they would care if you didn't come home," Bob insisted.

"No they wouldn't," he argued. "I was the screw up of the family. My brother was perfect and I could't live up to his standards so they criticized me while they praised him. As long as Donnie was there, they were happy," he explained.

Michael sat back and sighed. "Donnie got everything. He got the room over the garage, the nice car, he even got my first two girlfriends after he stole them from me," he stated.

"I didn't need anyone to take my girlfriends from me, just someone around to tell them the truth after I lied," Kirk remarked.

"I think this is my favorite group," Elliot informed everyone.

"And why, why is that Mr. Carlin?" Bob inquired, not knowing yet whether he really wanted to hear his reply.

"These sucky life stories are making me feel a little better about mine," he answered.

The others in the room turned and slightly glared to Elliot. "What? Honesty is being punished now?" he implored.

_Shadows settle on the place, that you left  
__Our minds are troubles by the emptiness  
__Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time  
__From the perfect start to the finish line  
__  
And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones  
__Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs.  
__Setting fire to our insides for fun  
__Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong_

_We are the reckless  
__We are the wild youth  
__Chasing visions of our futures  
__One day we'll reveal the truth  
__That one will die before he gets there_

_And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky one  
__Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone  
__We're setting fire to our insides for fun  
__Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home  
__It was a flood that wrecked our home_

_And you caused it_

_Well I've lost it all, I'm just a silhouette  
__A lifeless face that you'll soon forget  
__My eyes are damp from the words you left  
__Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest_

_And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one  
__Cause most of us are bitter over someone  
__Setting fire to our insides for fun  
__Distracting our hearts from ever missing them_

_ ~ Youth by Daughter_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Girl in the Mirror (part 1)

Joanna and Bob strolled down the trail in the forest together. "Do you ever wonder what things would be like if one day, you had just made one completely different decision?" Joanna questioned, keeping her head down towards the ground as she watched herself walk.

Bob shrugged. He hadn't really thought of that type of stuff recently. He was comfortable with the way that his life currently was now. "I guess," he answered.

"Did I ever tell you that the inn my father owned was originally left to me?" she questioned.

"No, no you didn't," he responded.

Joanna stopped and sighed. "Well, it was," she stated, looking over to him. "I knew that when I was younger, and before I moved to Chicago and got a job. I knew that I always had something waiting for me if I failed," she explained. "I've had most of my life set up that way."

"Like, uh, a security blanket of some sorts," he suggested.

Joanna nodded. "Yeah," she softly laughed, looking back to the ground as she slowly started walking again. "I could always get on a plane or drive off somewhere and be fine with staying where ever, just as long as I could clean the area I was perfectly okay with not knowing exactly where I was going to end up, but when it comes to certain things," she trailed off, thinking back to Stephanie's situation.

"You couldn't even imagine taking the risk?" Bob attempted to finish for her.

"In my mind, I have this perfect man in mind," she said and then looked per to Bob. "And you're right, I am making it hard for me to find someone, but, I feel like if I don't stick to that description, I might end up with a man like Stephanie ended up with."

"And what if, what if you pass up a man that's perfect for you?" Bob implored, causing her to stop and look to him with desperation.

After a brief moment, she shook her head and continued walking. "That's not possible. I just got comfortable with walking out here like this where it's dirty. And that's only because I forced myself to get used to it. Not many people can put up with that," she reasoned.

"Look, I was just trying to point out that you'll never know," Bob told her.

"I know that. That's the very reason I'm picky," she informed him.

"You know, I'm sure that Stephanie and Carl didn't start out bad. They, they could have started out really getting along. And there are some people out there at, at each other's throats that might end up getting along and loving each other tomorrow," Bob informed her. "There's never going to be a sure fire way of telling. So it comes down to whether or not you think it's worth the risk."

Joanna looked down and thought about what he had said. Yes, it was true, she could have passed on a man who was perfect for her. She could have had the life that she was talking about to him yesterday by now. "What if I decide that I don't think I want to take that risk?"

"Well, then, uh, you don't have to. There are plenty of people out there who are single and happy because they prefer to stay that way," Bob answered, although, he knew that she didn't really want to be single.

He stopped and turned to Joanna, who stopped right after he did. "It seems to me like you have a hard time trusting some people. Not everyone, just men that you like," he observed.

Joanna looked up to him. "What makes you say that?" she questioned.

"Do you, do you remember when this group only consisted of you, Mr. Carlin, Larry, Darryl, and Darren?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered, slightly smiling.

"It wasn't hard for you to trust them. You had to take some time to adjust to Mr. Carlin, but, you seemed to have no problem talking about anything with them," he informed her.

Joanna nodded. "That's true. It seems like I did a lot more talking in those days," she said.

"Right," Bob replied. "Then, uh, do uh, do you remember who the next person was to join?"

Joanna thought for a moment. "Kirk," she answered with hesitance. What was only about a year ago seemed so long ago. "It had to have been Kirk."

"And how did you act when he got there?" Bob asked, leading her.

"I didn't talk as much," she responded.

"Also, the same time that you developed a crush on him. The, the one that made you almost want to leave the group," he said.

"I don't distrust every guy that I have feelings for," she argued as she started walking. She didn't want to get into this now, they were getting close to a dangerous area that she didn't want to cross. Not here, not now, possibly not ever.

"That's good," Bob said as he caught up to her. "Does, does that upset you?" Perplexed, he started going back through what he had said, trying to figure out what had upset her.

"No," she sighed, coming to a halt. "I just, I don't think I want to talk about this anymore," she stated.

"All right," Bob replied, a little surprised by the sudden turn of events that had just taken place.

"Thank you," she quietly responded as she turned and started back towards the cabins.

ooo

"I refuse to go out there until I know those two men are fully clothed," Stephanie announced as Michael stood and looked out the window.

"Okay," he gave in to her.

Right now, the two were alone. Bob and Joanna were on their walk, Larry and his brothers went out to look around the camp ground, and then Kirk and Elliot were out getting close to nature.

Michael turned and looked back to her as she sat on the couch, playing with her hair. He wanted to ask her more about what had happened, but at the same time he was a little nervous to. He really did not want to upset her.

"You ever read anything?" he questioned, trying to get a small conversation started.

Stephanie looked up to him. "Does Cosmo count?" she implored.

"Yeah," he answered.

"I read that," she stated and then went back to playing with her hair. After talking earlier, she just wasn't in the mood to really talk to anyone about anything.

"How about tv?" he questioned.

Stephanie sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. "Look, I like you, but I think I'd like you a lot more right now if we weren't talking," she told him.

"Oh, sorry," Michael said, dropping his head in disappointment. He went and turned his back to her again as he returned to looking through the window. He knew that he shouldn't have tried so hard.

Stephanie now felt a little bad for what she had done and decided to go along with him. Besides, these were simple questions. It had nothing to do with her life with Carl and Renee. At least he knew where he couldn't go.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and went for it. "You ever watch Green Acres?" she asked. It wasn't really something she liked, but Renee used to like it, so she would put up with it.

"You watch that?" Michael inquired, turning back to her with surprise. He just couldn't picture her watching that.

"Well, I used to every once in a while. I prefer movies," she explained.

Michael nodded and turned back to the window. He could she wasn't really interested, so he decided to just stop, let it go, and sulk quietly to himself. Instead of just standing there in the silence though, he turned and started for the door.

"You're leaving?" Stephanie implored, insulted by the idea that he was just going to walk out on her.

"Well yeah Steph. You told me that you would like me a lot better if I wasn't talking, so I figured that you would like me a lot more if I left," he informed her. He just wanted to get out of there before he made things worse between them.

"If I wanted you to leave I would've told you," she explained.

Michael smiled. "Really?" he asked.

"Michael, I have no problem telling people what I want. You should know that by now," she assured him.

"Okay, I'll stay," he said, a goofy smile plastered on his face as he went and sat down on the chair by the fireplace.

She had to admit, this man did peak her interest. He was willing to do anything to keep her happy. Sure, it might have been an insecurity, a psychological problem and he couldn't stand to make anyone unhappy, but he was still doing a lot more than Carl ever would. She had to wonder if there was a little more behind it though. "Even though it's probably the obvious answers, I have to ask. Why do you insist on being around me all the time?" Stephanie implored. She knew that he liked her, that wasn't too hard to see, but she wanted to know why. After the incident with Carl, she felt like she had to ask. She just had to make sure.

"Well, you're pretty, you dress nice, I agree with a lot of what you say," Michael started. Some other things that he was never going to tell her were that she was a brat, she was whiny, and she had no problem being demanding or letting people know when she did not like them. These were not things that he enjoyed, per say, they actually annoyed the hell out of him, but he never had to worry about what she really thought of him. He knew that she wasn't just acting when she said that she was happy, and when she started whining, it was quite obvious what to do to make her happy. There was no second guessing mixed signals and he would never have to wonder what it was that upset her.

Stephanie smiled. "Yeah, it was the obvious," she smugly remarked.

"When we get back home, do you think that maybe we could do something like meet for dinner or something?" he nervously requested.

"Where?" she asked.

"Um, do you like, hamburgers?" he asked, not really knowing how to pick a place right on the spot. Right after he said anything though, he mentally kicked himself.

"Ew! I don't think so," she quickly responded. She was still looking to Michael, though, awaiting for him to try again.

"Wait! How about," he started and then looked to her, starting to get more nervous. "How about you pick," he offered.

"Sounds good," she said and then sat back and went back to playing with her hair.

ooo

Joanna was walking down the trail, her arms crossed as she kept her eyes down to the ground.

"Something wrong?"

Joanna turned and saw Kirk standing behind the bushes. "That's nice," she responded.

"It's not like I'm completely naked," he told her, noting that she looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Prove it," she requested, slightly smirking. She knew that he would back down and admit to the truth.

"Fine, I am," Kirk admitted. "But you never answered my question."

Joanna shrugged. "I guess I'm just not an outdoors person," she answered, looking around the area. She grew a little tense once she glanced down to the ground.

"You think you're not now, don't go over to the other end of the loop. Elliot found himself a rock that he likes to stand on over there," he warned her. "Now that's the truth."

"I believe you," she assured him, slightly laughing.

"Good, I don't wanna have to listen to people re-account their bad experiences with him tonight," he explained.

Joanna laughed and then looked down towards the end of the trail. "Listen," she began, turning to look to Kirk. "Listen, I think I'm gonna head back to the cabin. Maybe see what's going on there," she said as she started down the trail.

What she really wanted right now was to be alone. She had something on her mind, something that she had to think about what had been happening. She truly was scared about what had happened between Stephanie and Carl, and how she should have someone by now, but she couldn't because she was scared. That, and also he was starting to get to something that she had kept secret for a long time.

It wasn't right away, but after talking to him a few times, she had developed a small crush on Bob. She hated it because first off, she knew that he was married. Second, he was her doctor, it just wasn't right. What he didn't know, was that she never actually had feelings for Kirk, even though she did think that he was kind of cute when he first joined, but she wanted to leave because she knew that it was wrong to have those feelings. That was also why she stopped talking as much, she didn't want to say the wrong thing, she was almost paranoid about every little thing that came out of her mouth.

"Joanna!"

Joanna turned and saw Larry walking down the path leading his brothers. "Yes?"

"Have you by any chance seen Elliot?" Larry implored, stopping beside her.

Joanna shook her head. "Thankfully no," she replied with a smile.

"Oh, because Darryl here has some tips for him about avoiding ticks that he forgot to mention last night," Larry explained.

"Well, that could come in handy," Joanna responded, not really sure what was going on after missing the previous night's conversation.

"He and Darren decided that maybe it's not a bad idea to have a little trepidation towards lyme disease," he stated. Darryl and Darren both nodded in agreement.

"It's never a bad time to think about disease prevention," she agreed.

"Right," Larry replied and then looked back to his brothers. "Now come on, I wanna catch him before he runs through any open fields," he instructed.

Joanna stepped off to the side and watched as Larry lead his brothers down the trail. She just shook her head and continued to the rec room. She got down to the cabin and made her way around the back to the door.

As soon as she opened the door, she froze a second. Before her, she could see Stephanie sitting up on the dining table with Michael standing before her. His arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her in as her arms were loosely around his neck. She was leaning into him, kissing.

Once Stephanie realized they weren't alone anymore, her eyes widened as she scurried to push Michael back off of her. "Michael!"

"Aww! What did I do wrong?" Michael nearly whined as he backed away from her.

"Hey Joanna," Stephanie greeted, not hesitant to make it obvious how disappointed she was at the moment.

Michael quickly wheeled around and saw Joanna standing there with Elliot behind her, wearing his clothes once again. "Oh, hey you two. How's it going?" he asked, starting to nervously laugh.

Joanna wasn't aware that there was anyone with her. She turned back and noticed Elliot.

"People like are the reason why I can't share a cabin with the girls," he remarked as he walked in and sat down on the couch.

Joanna sighed as she looked over and saw Stephanie looking off to the side as she nervously played with her hair and Michael stood there, smiling to himself.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Girl in the Mirror (part 2)

Everyone sat silently together in the room that night. On the couch, Elliot had wedged himself between Michael and Stephanie, which bothered both of them. Joanna sat off more by herself in one of the chairs from the dinner table. Kirk sat over on the window sill and Larry and his brothers all piled onto the chair.

"So, uh, I hear that everyone had an interesting day," Bob started as pulled up a chair.

The room remained quiet for the most part. Everyone had something on their mind and no one wanted to be the first to bring anything up this time.

"I thought the patients weren't supposed to make out with each other while on this trip," Elliot mentioned.

"I agree!" Kirk announced. "Isn't that the sole reason of the separate cabins?"

"You're just jealous," Michael replied, smiling bigger than he ever had before. Once he saw the looks on Elliot's and Kirk's faces though, the smile faded from his.

Bob sighed. He was aware of what had happened between Michael and Stephanie earlier. "Look, all they did was uh, was kiss. We're all adults here," he explained. The only thing that he was concerned about was the fact that this was all right after Stephanie had brought up he time with Carl. He could see that Michael liked her, he just didn't want her leading him on because her memories of marriage caused her to feel like she needed someone right then and there.

"Speak for yourself," Elliot remarked, looking to Kirk.

"We said we weren't going to bring that up!" Kirk hissed.

"Bring what up?" Elliot smugly questioned.

Larry raised his hand. "I vote that if we don't wanna bring something up, that we don't have to," he stated.

"Um sure, why, why not?" Bob responded, dumbly looking between the two. He figured though, that it was best to just not know what happened.

"I think we should go home," Stephanie insisted.

"Why? So you can get it on with the kiss up over here?" Elliot inquired, causing both Stephanie and Michael to look to him with surprise.

"I would like to take this time to remind miss Stephanie that we are leaving tomorrow," Larry announced.

"I would like to take this time to suggest that hotlips over here gets a better boyfriend," Elliot said and then looked to her.

"I'll pay you to stay away from me," Stephanie offered.

"Deal," Elliot replied and then went back to staring forward.

"I for one, cannot be bought out," Kirk informed them.

Elliot just glared to him. He wasn't even about to catch him on lying, he wasn't sure whether or not he was.

"I can't be either," Stephanie added. "At least, after Carl I can't be."

Michael looked over to her with interest. "So you don't care about how much money I have?" he asked.

Stephanie did care a little, but he seemed to be making enough. He worked in television. There was no point in bringing it up. "You make enough," she assured him.

Bob rolled his eyes. He knew what she meant. He then noticed that Joanna hadn't talked at all. "How about you Ms. Richardson?" he questioned, trying to bring her into the discussion, if that was what you would call it.

Joanna looked up to him. "What?" she asked. She had been preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"We're talking about buying love," Larry explained.

"Oh," Joanna responded. "I don't think you can. If you love someone, you'll love them no matter what." Joanna then did the riskiest thing, at least in her mind it was, that she had ever done. "What do you think Doctor Hartley?" she inquired.

"I, I agree. Emily and I would still love each other if we were broke," Bob replied.

"You have to believe that, you're wife's hot," Kirk stated.

"I believe it," Joanna responded before Bob could say anything. He and Emily loved each other and that was it. There was no changing that. Never.

"One time I paid to have a couple split up," Stephanie confessed. "I wanted to go out with this boy in high school and he was already dating this cheerleader."

Joanna looked up and sighed. "Again, if he actually truly loved her, I don't think that there would have been any amount of money that would made him change his mind about her," she explained, a bittersweet smile forming. She was trying her hardest to keep herself from crying. Although she had never thought about offering Bob money to leave Emily and go out with her, this whole talk was somehow some sort of confirmation for her. There was indeed, no way that she would ever have a chance with him.

"Excuse me," Joanna said before standing up and walking out the door.

The room fell quiet as they watched her leave. Kirk stood up and sighed. "Well it was obvious that she was talking about me with the love thing, so I think I'll go talk to her," he volunteered.

"You wish," Elliot scoffed.

Bob stood up. "How uh how about I go talk to her?" he suggested. He felt if Kirk went and talked to her, things would be made worse.

Ooo

Joanna sat down on the ground against the tree next to the lake. Yes, it was dirty, but she stopped caring. She hugged her knees to her chest as she watched the sunset over the lake. It was quiet, and it was what she needed.

In there, back in that group, she felt like her future had crumbled before her. It was always obvious that she would never get her chance with Bob, but it was being shoved in her face back there.

Worse yet, she couldn't tell him. She couldn't just go in there and tell Bob that she had feelings for him. He was the reason why her standards were so high. He was the reason why she was having such a hard time finding someone else. She was scared to try it with anyone else. She didn't trust them like she trusted him. The other men could turn out to be like Carl, but she knew that Bob never would. He was the security blanket that she could never have.

This was the day though, that she had to move on. She had to tell Bob the truth, and she had to leave the group. After this, she couldn't be his patient anymore. It would hurt her to go on seeing him every week and knowing that she could never be his.

She couldn't back out like she did the first time. Tomorrow was going to be the last day that she would see him, and that was going to be it. She just couldn't go on torturing herself like this. As much as he had helped her in other areas, there was one in which he was holding her back, and it was the most important one to her now.

"D-did, something happen back there that I should know about?" Bob questioned.

Joanna looked over and saw him standing beside the tree. "No," she sighed. She was starting to wonder whether or not it was actually worth it to tell him what was going on. Maybe she could just stop coming to the group.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Maybe she had better just tell him. That way he could tell her that he could no longer be her doctor and then she could move on. It was a hard decision to make, but she had to make it now. "Actually," se began and then got to her feet. "I, I uh..."

Once she looked to his eyes, it was hard to spit out what she needed to say.

"Would you like to go with that?" Bob implored, trying to get her to just say it.

"I can't be your patient anymore," she blurted out.

"Well, okay," Bob started, slightly taken by surprise. "I could recommend a few other doctors if you want," he offered. As he stood there and thought about it, he was starting to catch on to what was happening here. She talks about being afraid of ending up alone, then gets upset when they start to talk about the time that she wanted out of the group, and then now, she gets upset when they talk about how love can't be bought. It wasn't all that hard to see. He just wasn't going to bring it up though.

"You're not going to ask why?" she implored.

"I guess I figure that if you wanted me to know that uh you would've told me when you said you couldn't be my patient anymore," he answered.

Joanna nodded, looking down towards the ground. "I guess I would have," she whispered more to herself. Looking back up, she sighed. "I guess I should confess something," she began, really wanting to tell someone.

"Yeah?"

Joanna tried once more to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead, she stood there, frozen. Without thinking about it, she quickly leaned in and planted a small, quick kiss on his lips. It lasted less than a millisecond, but it got the point across.

It was as soon as she pulled back and saw the look of utter confusion and shock on his face that she realized how dumb what she had done really was. Her cheeks started to feel hot as they turned red from embarrassment. "I'm sorry Doctor Hartley," she quickly stated and then turned and started for the cabin.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Sunday I'll Be Gone

Everybody lies, right? That was what she told herself as she tried to think of what to say. Joanna paced the cabin floor, trying to think. How could she have been so stupid? This was a married man! A happily married man! He was also her doctor!

There wasn't any time to think about that. Right now, she had to figure out what was going to happen next. She would have to see him sooner or later, unfortunately, that was inevitable. Oddly enough though, part of her wanted to see him. She just needed to know how he really felt about that tiny little kiss.

Joanna closed her eyes and sighed, scolding herself as she took a seat on her bed. She was acting like a silly little school girl. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. They were both adults right? And it was just a kiss. Adults kiss just to say hi to each other. This isn't middle school.

"Ms. Richardson?" Bob called as he knocked on the door.

Joanna looked towards the door, stunned for a moment, not sure if she really wanted to talk to him yet.

"I, I just wanted to make sure you were okay!" he assured her.

Joanna sighed, allowing herself to try and relax. "You can come in," she reluctantly responded. She had to get this over with sooner or later.

Bob entered into the cabin and carefully closed the door behind him. "A, about what, what uh, happened back there," he began. He himself was a bit surprised. Sure, he caught onto the fact that she had feelings for him, but the kiss? He just could not see her doing something like that.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted out, getting back to her feet. "I don't know what happened, I just, had to try it. It was like, I had one last chance and I'm not going to see you again and I just didn't think," she cried as she paced to the other side of the room.

"It, it's fine. Really. It, it was just a kiss, barely even that," he reassured her, trying to help her be less embarrassed.

Joanna sighed, stopping with her back to him. "I just feel so stupid," she told him. "I mean, I know you're married and I know that what I did was bad, I just," she began and then turned to face him. Her cheeks were slightly red. "I don't know."

Bob sighed. This was one of the first times where he really didn't know what to say to her. He knew what her problem was – it was him. He was the reason that she wasn't going out with anyone else and he was the reason that she felt uncomfortable in the group for a while. He also felt like he was breaking her heart, and he really did not want to do that to her. "You, you had feelings that you knew you couldn't act on, so, so you tried to repress them. You can't just do that, those feelings have to be expressed sooner or later. In your case, they finally decided to come to surface," he explained.

"Are you saying that I should have acted on them earlier?" she implored, surprised by this statement.

"No," he answered. "I'm saying that you should have told me earlier instead of trying so hard to hide your feelings," he clarified.

Joanna sighed, taking her seat back on the bed. Right now she just wanted to run away, get away from him and everything else. Then again, this was her fault. She was the one who let things get this out of hand. She should have left the group earlier when she first noticed her feelings. "I'm sorry," she apologized, ignoring the fact that she had already done so.

Bob allowed the silence to fall between them. He wanted to give her the chance to calm down and think. She was confused and embarrassed and he could not force her to talk.

Joanna blankly stared down towards the ground, making sure to not look up to Bob. "I guess this means I really have to find another doctor now doesn't it." It was meant to be a question, but turned out to be more of a statement to herself.

"Yes," Bob answered.

Joanna jerked her head to him, looking to him with a hint of surprise and offense.

"N-not because of what just happened. I, I believe that you could control yourself in the future. But uh, but I really do think that uh, that you would be able to be a lot happier if, if you could move on from the feelings you have towards me and find someone that makes you happy," he explained.

Joanna slightly smiled. "Am I the first to have a crush on you?" she questioned.

Bob shook his head. "No. A-actually, a lot of patients develop some sort of feelings. They sometimes mistake those feelings for something deeper. They, they come in and tell you their problems, you, you gain their trust and help them with their problems," he responded.

Joanna nodded in understanding and stood to her feet. "Well, should I just go ahead and leave now? Or wait and leave with everyone else?" she asked, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

"What ever you want to do," he told her. "You, you can finish the weekend and then just not come to any more sessions or, you can leave now."

Joanna thought about it. Leaving now, there would be more questions. There would be questions no matter what next week in the group, but it would a tad bit less obvious. And she did truly like this group. Maybe just one last night with them. Sure, she could try and keep in contact with them, but she knew that eventually she would be moving. That just seemed like a good idea to her. Maybe try Bob's idea of moving more to a country type area. "I'll stay," she announced.

Ooo

Darryl leaned over and whispered to Larry. "I hope she's okay too," Larry replied as he pulled back from him.

Stephanie sighed as she looked over to Michael from the other side of Elliot. "You know, some people shouldn't complain about not being liked when it's all their fault," she sharply mentioned.

"That's a lot coming from a spoiled brat," Elliot remarked.

"Oh!" Stephanie shrieked. "Michael! Do something! He called me a spoiled brat!" she whined.

Michael looked over to Elliot and nervously laughed. "Do you think that maybe you could possibly apologize to Stephanie?" he shyly requested.

"Do you think you could act like a man for once?" he responded.

Michael sighed and looked over to Stephanie. "Sorry Steph, I tried."

Stephanie shrugged. "At least you tried," she said and then sat back and sighed.

Kirk got up and walked over to the window to see if he could see Joanna and Bob. "I wonder what chased her out of here," he said.

"You probably annoyed her and she's too polite to say anything about it," Elliot informed him.

Kirk just rolled his eyes. "At least I wasn't offered money to stay away from someone," he quipped.

"Do you think she's okay?" Michael questioned, getting the two to stop.

"I don't know, she seemed pretty upset didn't she?" Kirk questioned, sitting down in one of the chairs from the table.

"Were people this concerned about me when I ran out?" Stephanie implored, her interest suddenly sparked.

"Yes," Kirk answered.

"Liar!" Elliot said and then turned to Stephanie. "The suck up was so we told him about the husband you might have getting ready to beat him up."

"Please, if I had a husband, I wouldn't be here right now. I would be off vacationing somewhere using his credit card," she stated.

Michael looked over for a second not sure what to say. That response though, had bothered him a little, making him wonder about what she was after with him. "I don't have that much," he whispered, leaning towards her.

"Don't worry about it," Stephanie responded.

The door opened and Bob came back into the room with Joanna. "Hey look, she's back," Stephanie flatly pointed out to everyone.

"Hi everyone," Joanna said, forcing a smile. It suddenly felt bittersweet to her. This was the last time that she was going to walk into a room and see all these people.

Kirk turned and looked to her. "Be honest, was it me or him that upset you?" he asked, motioning to Elliot.

Joanna shook her head and laughed. "No," she simply replied.

"How, uh, how about we call it a night and then start a new discussion in the morning before we leave?" Bob suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Kirk replied before strolling out of the place.

Ooo

Stephanie walked into the room to see Joanna sitting on her bed, blankly staring forward. "Now come on. We go home tomorrow," Stephanie remarked.

Joanna looked up to her. "I know," she flatly replied.

Stephanie went and sat down on her bed. "Okay," she sighed. "I'll guess I'll give this a shot. What's wrong?"

Joanna looked to her with surprise and softly laughed. "It's nothing," she answered.

Stephanie nodded and went back to her own little "dilemmas" in life. "Do you think that if a man asked me to go see the Omen with him a few days ago is still going to hold me to that offer tomorrow night?" she inquired.

"Did you say yes?"

"Yes, but I got a better offer," Stephanie informed her.

Joanna would have normally said no, but she knew that Michael was the better offer. "I think you should go with the better offer," she answered.

"Good, because I am," she said and then started to get under the covers. "So, why did you run out today?" she casually asked, trying once again to see what was going on with her.

"Just some personal feelings. I don't really know to be honest," Joanna told her. In way, she was right. There was nothing new that she heard at that meeting. She had just been thinking too much. She opened her eyes.

Stephanie nodded. She reached under her pillow and grabbed the picture of Renee. Shyly, she peeked up to see whether or not Joanna had been paying attention to her. It was when she saw Joanna preoccupied with getting ready for bed, she went ahead and quickly planted a soft kiss on the picture.

As she stood there, her back to Stephanie while pulling the covers back, she smiled to herself. She had heard Stephanie kiss something and knew it was the picture. She didn't say anything though. It was a cute little action and she didn't want to ruin it.

Joanna got under the covers and looked over to Stephanie, staring down at the picture. There was something that she had meant to ask her yesterday night. "Do you ever regret any of it?" she asked.

"What? Coming here?" Stephanie flatly inquired, not taking her eyes off the picture.

"No, your marriage with Carl?"

Stephanie looked up to her over the picture, her mouth slightly agape. She didn't know what to say to that. Yes, she wished she hadn't been with Carl, but what about Renee? She didn't regret her. It was a hard question to answer. "Well," she began. "I wish Rini had a different father," she stated, hoping that would suffice as an answer.

Joanna nodded. That was the answer she was slightly afraid to hear. She was hoping that she would tell her she didn't regret the first part of her marriage or something like that. In a way, she needed that small reassurance to go out and try to find a man, other than Bob.

Then again, she didn't say she regretted everything. She did say that she loved Renee. That something, right? The marriage wasn't completely pointless. Then, she remembered that back while they were having their group session, she mentioned that she couldn't be bought anymore, so she did learn something.

Smiling to herself, she thought about the new place that she would look for to live. Tomorrow, she decided, was not only going to be her last day with this group, but her last day in Chicago.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Courage

The morning sun shone through the windows. Right now, Joanna was alone. Everyone else was off having breakfast and then going to a session.

This would have been her last, and she really did want to go, but she just couldn't. It would have made things just that much harder.

These were people that she had grown close to within the past couple of years. Sitting there with all of them, talking about their plans and when the next meeting was going to be, she just couldn't do it without shedding a tear. The last thing that she needed today was the emotionally charged goodbyes and the questions of whether or not she was sure moving was the right thing. What she wanted was to just disappear and maybe Bob could tell them. It didn't really matter if they knew once she was gone. She wasn't even sure she would ever see these people again after the bus ride to the office.

"You missed the session," Stephanie announced as she hurried into the cabin and started collecting her things to leave.

"Did I miss anything good?" Joanna casually asked.

"Well, Elliot got in a fight with Kirk over something stupid like his hairpiece or something. Larry, Darryl and Darren pledged to separate, and Michael got upset with Elliot when he told Doctor Hartley that he had a better chance with me and then Michael backed down and looked at me," she told her while checking to make sure that she had everything.

"So the same thing as all weekend," Joanna noted. She closed her suitcase and sighed. She turned back and saw Stephanie securing the picture in her purse wallet. "I really do hope you find her," she said.

"I will. I always get what I want," Stephanie reminded her. She left her things in a pile on the bed and went to the door. "Michael!" she yelled.

Joanna couldn't help but softly laugh when Michael came running into the cabin. "I got it," he assured her as he grabbed the suitcases. "I'll hand these to Larry and them and then I'll walk you to the bus," he informed her.

He was about to grab the luggage but stopped and looked to Joanna. "Where were you this morning?" he inquired.

"Allergies, I was pretty bad this morning. I thought it best just to stay here a while," she lied.

Stephanie looked to Joanna, her eyes wide. "Wow," she gasped. "I mean, I can tell your eyes are a little puffy, but your nose! I can't see any red! You're going to have to tell me what you used," she remarked before following Michael out the door.

Joanna just sighed, a smile lingering on her face. She was going to miss these people.

Ooo

The entire bus ride back, Joanna was silent. She sat there, staring out the window, wondering what life would bring her now.

At this point, she really thought that she would be sad. She wasn't though. As a matter of fact, she felt relieved almost. It was like, it was all settling in now. The mere idea of letting go of the very things holding her back showed her just how much she truly had to look forward to.

She was going to move her mom back into the old inn with her and reopen it for business. That was the plan. They were going to fix up the place and that was how it was going to work.

They had reached Chicago just a few minutes ago. She could see the high rise buildings and the traffic surrounding her. Both, things that she hated about the city. There was something that she was going to miss though, the people, especially Bob Hartley. The man that became the very reason she had to leave.

That was why she had to make sure to say goodbye to him. Put all the fear behind her and do something that she had been wanting to do this entire time. Remember that she was leaving so it didn't matter, there was no need for embarrassment any more.

Ooo

Everyone piled off the bus, most just heading straight to their cars. Joanna, was the last to exit. Standing there, she watched as Bob looked around, making sure that everyone made it back and safe. That was when she drew in a deep breath, and prepared herself.

"Doctor Hartley?" she called as she approached him.

Bob turned to her. He was actually surprised she hadn't sped out of there. "Yes?" he asked.

Joanna stopped before him, a smile on her face. "Do you think I could talk to you real quick in your office? Just a few minutes?" she implored.

Bob sighed. He really just wanted to get home. At the same time though, he knew that this was Joanna's last time talking to him. "All right, come on," he obliged.

The two entered the building together and made their way up to his seventh floor office. It was weird with no one working there. Carol and Jerry and the other doctors gone.

"So what did you want to uh, to uh, to talk about?" he questioned, taking a seat at his desk.

Joanna stepped in and stood before the desk. "I, I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you," she stated. "It's not easy putting up with someone like me."

Bob shook his head. "You have a legitimate problem and you came to me to help you try and resolve it. I'm just sorry I wasn't able to help you fully get over it before you left," he replied.

Joanna dropped her head as she slowly paced across the floor. "I am better though," she assured him. "I am surprised though that after what happened, you're okay with being in an office alone," she remarked, looking up and smiling to him.

Now, Bob was slightly uncomfortable. "Well, I, I trust you," he said, hoping that he really could. There was something different behind that smile. Something that he had never seen from her before.

Joanna walked over to the desk, leaning down on her hands to slowly close the space between them. She remained calm on the outside, but really, on the inside, she was scared. The door was so close, all she had to do was turn and run. She forced herself to stay though. Worse than the temporary embarrassment and rejection, was regret. Right now, she could not handle regret. Not now, not anymore.

Bob started to back away from her, but she cupped his face in her hand. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do anything that can risk your marriage. I just want a kiss. One longer than what I had out there," she explained, keeping her voice calm and steady. It was visible to her that Bob was still uncomfortable with the idea, but she went with it anyways.

Without any hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him, this time lingering on his lips. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to see him disapproving of her. Maybe she did feel a little guilty, but it was masked by the feeling of longing and desire. She was happy to get the kiss, but sad that it was only a kiss and never anything more.

As she pulled back from him, she saw how stunned he truly was, how he kept his eyes glued to her. "Thank you," she breathed out before quickly exiting the room.

Bob just turned to the door with apprehension, he was about to stop her at the doorway, but instead, said nothing. It was best just to let her go. No questions asked.

Ooo

Five years later. 1981

Bob stepped out of the car, dressed in one of his nicer suits. Emily remained in the car for a moment as she checked her make up.

"You look fine honey," Bob told her, urging her to hurry up so that they could go inside and get a seat.

Emily stepped out of the car and smirked to him. "Still quite the charmer aren't you Bob?" she teased.

Bob walked over and put his arm around her, guiding her through the parking lot and to the front steps of the church. After the two hour drive, it was nice to finally get out of the car and walk a bit.

"Where, where do you wanna sit?" Bob inquired.

Emily looked to him and shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "How about here?" she suggested, leading him to an empty seat on the end towards the aisle.

"Works for me," he said, following his wife's lead and sitting next to her.

"Doctor Hartley?"

Bob leaned over and looked to the man on the other side of Emily. "Hello Mr. Harris," he greeted. "You seem surprised to see me here," he mentioned. "I, I told you I would be here during our session last week."

Michael laughed. "Of course I remember you telling me," he lied. He then looked over to Emily. "So how's the doctor's other half doing?" he inquired.

Emily offered him a smile. "Fine," she replied. Michael was nice to her every time that she saw him, but he did annoy her at times. "How are you?"

Before Michael could answer, Stephanie came and sat down, along with a teenage girl and twin toddler girls. Michael smiled to them and then turned back to the Hartleys. "Broke," he answered.

"I don't believe you two have met our daughters, Renee, Riley, and Remy," he introduced. He turned to face his family. "Girls, this is Doctor Hartley and his wife."

Bob looked over as Stephanie pulled the little girl in the purple dress up onto her lap. Renee, the young teenager next to her, did the same with the little girl in the pink pink dress. Renee looked over and offered him a smile, but stayed quiet. She looked just like Stephanie though, just a younger version of her. The young girls, he noticed, looked a little more like Michael.

"Mommy?" Riley asked, looking up to her. "Who dat?"

"Yeah! Who dat?" Remy repeated, starting to climb over from Renee's lap.

"That's daddy's doctor. He's the one that treats daddy's craziness," Stephanie informed them.

Bob was about to remind Stephanie that she used to see him as a patient too, but let it go. Emily though, laughed at the remark. "He's the only crazy one in the family?" she quipped. It wasn't that Emily and Stephanie didn't get along when ever they saw each other, Emily just got tired of her princess attitude.

Stephanie shot a quick glare to Emily before straightening Riley's dress.

"Have uh, have you heard from Mr. Devane lately?" Bob inquired, eager to change the subject. "He's, he's married now to a girl named Cynthia."

"That's a pretty name," Stephanie stated. "Who all is left in that little group of yours anyway?"

"Well, besides me, there's Elliot, Larry, Darryl, Darren, and this new guy, George," Michael answered.

Bob leaned over to Emily. "That's the one that reminds me of Cliff," he whispered.

Emily just nodded response. "Ah," she whispered.

"Hey look," Michael said, looking over toward the aisle. Bob and Emily both turned to see Larry and his brothers walking in and taking a seat.

"Those three are still together?" Stephanie questioned.

"They probably will be for a while," Bob stated.

The music started to play, and everyone stood up, facing the doors. First the maid of honor walked down the aisle, escorted by the best man. Then came the bride, Joanna, escorted by her uncle. Bob, who was right at the aisle, offered her a smile. She saw him, their eyes meeting for a brief moment as she returned the smile. Her small way of thanking him for coming.

This was her chance to show him that she truly had moved on, that she had gathered enough courage to get out there and look. She allowed herself to be brave enough to give someone a chance.

The crowd sat back down as Joanna joined the groom at the front of the church. "We now gather here today, to witness the marriage of Richard Louden and Joanna Richardson," the minister announced.

Bob sighed, proud of her, and happy for her.


End file.
